Big seniors housing and care companies are back in vogue as acquisition targets, and they are all occurring with the specter of a Brookdale Senior Living buyout looming over the market. First came Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors’ $825 million acquisition of Sentio Healthcare Properties and its portfolio of 34 seniors housing and medical office properties. Then, we learned of Sabra Health Care REIT and Care Capital Properties’ all-stock merger valued at nearly $4 billion. Now, in the midst of rumors that Brookdale is in exclusive talks with a Chinese investor (Zhonghong Zhuoye Group) for a potential sale valued at $3.0 billion, we learned of another major deal in the works.
Columbia Pacific Advisors announced it plans to acquire Hawthorn Retirement Group, a senior living developer/owner/operator with 55 existing properties across 20 states and two Canadian provinces in its portfolio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction also included Hawthorn’s management and construction businesses, in addition to the company’s 24 new communities either in the development or pre-development stage. Pat Kennedy, Hawthorn’s current CEO, will remain as a Hawthorn senior executive when the transaction closes, which is expected in the third quarter.
The acquisition primes Columbia Pacific for growth, coming several months after the firm expanded its position in Asia with the acquisition of Serene Senior Care and its four existing seniors housing communities and 735 residential units in India. Similar to the Hawthorn deal, Serene also has an impressive development pipeline, with plans to grow its number of units to 5,000 within five years. We will have to wait and see if Columbia Pacific will focus on growing through development or if they have more acquisitions in store.
