Drawing the Blueprint brings you raw access to the movers and shakers in healthcare real estate and beyond.

From a Back-to-the-Future icebreaker to a masterclass in value creation, Ben Firestone sits down with longtime friend and Blueprint partner Andrew Sfreddo to unpack how Blueprint stood up a behavioral healthcare practice that blends vision with rigor. Andrew breaks down the firm’s dual-path process, marketing challenged senior housing assets both to traditional operators and to behavioral health providers to create real optionality and higher outcomes. They dig into adaptive reuse, licensed inpatient focus (psychiatric hospitals, drug & alcohol treatment, eating-disorder centers), and the nuts and bolts of execution: 1,200+ feasibility studies (about 1 in 5 viable), a team of five with provider-side expertise, and 30+ transactions where behavioral conversion outperformed seniors-housing valuations. Don’t miss the Plano, TX case study that jumped from $50K/unit offers to a $115K/unit sale by repositioning to licensed behavioral health, same building, smarter use. If you care about healthcare real estate, behavioral health operations, or how culture and process compound into results, this episode is your playbook for turning “stuck” assets into community-serving, investment-grade solutions. About Blueprint: https://www.blueprinthcre.com/

Ben sits down with longtime friend and founder of Lakeshore Helping Hands, Neal Goss, to explore what great non-medical caregiving really looks like and why it can restore independence for clients while easing stress for families. Paralyzed at 15 after a hockey accident, Neal has relied on caregivers for 25 years. That lived experience shaped his system for recruiting, interviewing, and training caregivers around what matters most: empathy, reliability, clear boundaries, and a relationship grounded in mutual respect. Together, they unpack: ● The difference a dignity-first caregiver makes in daily life and family dynamics ● How to vet agencies and individual caregivers (green flags vs. red flags) ● Why values and communication often matter more than résumés or prior tasks ● Lessons learned the hard way (and a few humorous missteps) about keeping professional lines intact ● Neal’s purpose-driven leap from finance to entrepreneurship to help others avoid common pitfalls If you’re navigating care for an aging parent, living with a disability, or building a caregiving team, this conversation offers practical takeaways and a hopeful blueprint for better support at home. More about Blueprint: https://www.blueprinthcre.com/

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, we sit down with Adam Kaplan, entrepreneur, operator, venture capitalist, and family man. As CEO of Solera Senior Living and co-founder of Equitage Ventures, Adam shares his unique perspective on building best-in-class communities, investing in age-tech innovation, and navigating today’s capital markets. From his Chicago roots to his Denver reinvention, Adam reflects on parallel paths, lessons in entrepreneurship, and what drives him to keep evolving. A candid conversation on leadership, innovation, and the future of senior housing you won’t want to miss. Learn more: https://www.blueprinthcre.com/

In this episode, we sit down with longtime friend and industry veteran John Cobb to trace his journey from a successful run at Blueprint to launching Health Wave Partners—a new healthcare real estate investment platform backed by Macquarie Asset Management. John shares how his career pivot led to co-founding a startup with serious momentum, the strategic advantage of building a complementary senior team, and why his investment focus is on core-plus, high-quality senior housing assets. We talk about the underestimated challenges of starting a new venture, lessons from assembling the right culture, and how AI is already streamlining due diligence in real estate. Whether you’re an investor, operator, or just curious about where healthcare real estate is headed, this conversation offers an inside look at launching with intention, scaling with speed, and modernizing an industry still catching up to other asset classes. Learn more about Blueprint: https://www.blueprinthcre.com/