The 16-Bed Development Blueprint

1. Two roads, pick the one that fits you

The big facility has the big revenue. Private-pay assisted living in Texas averages around $5,250 per resident per month, and a 30-bed building is a real business. It is also a $5M to $16M ground-up project where financing, zoning, and construction all have to line up.

If your goal is to start earning sooner with far less capital, an owner-occupied Adult Foster Care home with 3 or fewer residents is the small-and-fast road. Many operators start small, prove they can run it, then build big. This guide is for when you are ready for big.

2. The 5 steps of a ground-up build

Here is the whole path, start to finish. The steps overlap in real life: financing closes while design finishes, and lease-up starts before the last bed is built. What matters is keeping them moving in the right order.

1. Feasibility and site control. Confirm the demand for your area, run the zoning on your target site, and get the land locked up under contract or option. Zoning and entitlement is where most big projects die, so settle it up front, before you commit a dollar to the wrong parcel.
2. Design and predevelopment. Bring in the architect and civil engineer and steer the drawings to satisfy Texas HHSC physical-plant rules: bedroom square footage, bathroom ratios, egress, and fire safety, so nothing gets kicked back. Predevelopment (plans, engineering, environmental, permits) commonly runs $1.5M to $3M on a large ground-up project.
3. Financing close. Structure the construction loan, funded in draws and interest-only on what is drawn, usually around 70 to 75 percent of project cost, plus the permanent take-out it converts into: SBA 504 or 7(a) for owner-operators up to $5M, or HUD 232 for larger licensed facilities at the lowest long-term fixed rate.
4. Construction. The general contractor builds while the draw schedule, inspections, and lien waivers that release each round of funding are managed, keeping the lender, the GC, and the inspectors moving in lockstep.
5. License, lease-up, and stabilize. Prep the HHSC licensing survey and certificate of occupancy, then fill the beds. Empty beds still carry the mortgage, so plan your operating runway from day one.

3. What it really costs (2025 to 2026 figures)

These are 2025 to 2026 market figures drawn from CBRE, RSMeans, Senior Housing News, and industry data. Your project will vary, so treat them as planning ranges, not quotes.

• •Hard construction cost: $280 to $452 per sq ft. Standard assisted living on the low end, high-acuity or memory care on the high end.
• •All-in development cost: roughly $317,400 and up per unit (CBRE 2022 benchmark of 70% hard, 18.5% soft, 8.2% land). Costs have risen since, so treat it as a floor.
• •Predevelopment before construction: $1.5M to $3M for architecture, engineering, environmental, and permit fees.
• •Adaptive reuse of an existing building: saves roughly 37 to 50 percent per sq ft versus ground-up, but heavy reuse on a bad building can cost more.
• •General contractor fee: 10 to 20 percent of the project, and 20 to 25 percent for complex senior-care systems coordination.
• •Civil engineering and site design: $20k to $150k, or roughly 1 to 8 percent of site cost depending on entitlement complexity.
• •Zoning or land-use attorney: $200 to $600 per hour, or roughly $1k to $5k flat for straightforward transactional work.
• •Soft costs (architecture and engineering, financing, carry): roughly 18.5 percent of total.

4. The rough all-in math

Starting from that roughly $317,400-per-unit floor, and it is higher today, a 16-bed facility pencils around $5M+, a 30-bed around $9.5M+, and a 50-bed around $16M+ ground-up. Converting an existing building can cut the per-square-foot cost 37 to 50 percent, if the bones are good.

5. The team a big build requires

A big build is a team sport, and missing one player stalls the whole project. These are the six seats that have to be filled before the project can move.

• •Zoning or land-use attorney: gets the property legally allowed to be a facility. The number one deal-killer if skipped.
• •Architect: designs to HHSC physical-plant code, meaning room sizes, bath ratios, egress, and fire safety.
• •Civil engineer: site work, grading, utilities, drainage, fire access, and ADA parking.
• •General contractor: builds it, coordinates subs, and manages the draw schedule and inspections.
• •Lender: the construction loan plus the permanent take-out.
• •Compliance and paperwork: the P&P manual, licensing package, and staffing docs.

6. The three pieces to line up first

Every project comes down to three pieces: the land and property (a site that can be zoned and built for care, or an existing building worth converting), the financing (construction loan, SBA, or HUD 232 matched to the project), and the compliance paperwork (the P&P manual, licensing package, and staff documents). Get all three moving and the build has a real path. These figures are general guidance from public 2025 to 2026 industry data, not legal, financial, or construction advice.