Drawing the Blueprint

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, Claudia and Rodrigo Garcia share how they transformed personal adversity into a mission-driven business with the founding of Parkdale Center. After Rodrigo’s battle with addiction following a workplace injury, the couple saw firsthand the gaps in treatment, especially for healthcare professionals, and set out to build a better outpatient care model. Joined...

Ben welcomes longtime friend and Blueprint’s newest leader, Tony Marino to unveil our expanded Capital Markets practice and demystify HUD/FHA financing for healthcare real estate. Tony breaks down why HUD-insured loans are the “last stop on the train” for stabilized nursing homes and seniors housing: long-term, non-recourse, fully amortizing debt with typically lower rates than banks. They dig int...

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, Ben Firestone sits down with Amy Sitzman, Executive Managing Director, Partner, and a leader at Blueprint, to discuss what it takes to succeed in today’s senior housing market. Amy, who joined the firm in 2017, shares her perspective on building a career and driving results in a competitive and evolving industry. Amy reflects on her journey from medical eq...

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, Ben Firestone and Mike Segal share the story behind Blueprint’s founding and the culture that sets it apart from the competition. What started as a connection between University of Michigan alumni grew into a leading healthcare real estate advisory firm with a mission to deliver real results for those shaping the future of senior care. Blueprint was co-fou...

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, host and Michigan alum Ben Firestone sits down with Jared Wangler, a former University of Michigan student-athlete turned leader in the NIL space. Jared played football at Michigan from 2014–2018 before shifting his focus to the business side of sports, where he now leads Valiant Management and Champions Circle, the university’s NIL collective. Jared trace...

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, host Ben Firestone sits down with Jennifer Sternshein, a standout leader in the legal industry whose path to law is anything but traditional. Jennifer shares how she began acting at age 17 and used her acting career to help pay for law school - an early lesson in grit that continues to define her leadership today. She reflects on her firm’s remarkable rise...

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, host Ben Firestone sits down with Northeast broker Kory Buzin, a dealmaker known for his grit, charisma, and unshakeable work ethic. From law school and big-firm life to navigating elopements during site tours, Kory’s journey into senior housing brokerage is anything but traditional. Ben and Kory revisit the early days of Blueprint, swap stories about ment...

Founder & CEO Alan Plush and CFO/Partner Samantha Medred of HealthTrust, one of healthcare real estate’s leading valuation advisory firms join Ben for a two-part conversation on the past, present, and future of senior housing and healthcare valuation. Alan rewinds to his Sarasota start, the leap from boutique shops to forming HealthTrust post Sarbanes-Oxley, and how the firm scaled from a smal...

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 p...

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 c...

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, Ad...

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 senio...

In this episode of Drawing the Blueprint, co-founders Ben Firestone and Jacob Gehl rewind to the earliest days of Blueprint—before the playbook was written and when everything felt like an experiment. From the surprising outpouring of market support to the avalanche of behind-the-scenes challenges (legal, accounting, tax, compliance, and more), they share the real story of what it takes to move fr...