The numbers just make sense: 25,000 stores may close in 2020, while the over-65 population is increasing by nearly 10,000 people a day. Sears and J.C. Penney aren’t coming back, but there are endless waves of retiring boomers ahead. Built on a continuing-care communities model, one new senior development sits on the site of a former shopping mall to offer residents almost every service needed. And they’re not alone—hundreds more of these retrofitted retail sites are in the works. 

Is this the big opportunity retail property owners need to embrace? Can these customized mixed-use communities offer investors real growth over the long term? And will the residents and their retirement incomes be able to sustain the businesses there to service the population?