RED Capital Partners is helping to fuel the growth of one Florida seniors housing developer with six to 10 properties in the works in the Sunshine State. Discovery Senior Living currently manages and partially owns (through its affiliate Discovery Management Group) six large “Aston Gardens” independent living communities in Florida, and the company took over operations and received an ownership interest from Plano, Texas-based Conservatory Senior Living at five independent living communities in Texas (totaling 1,051 units) in March 2014. The company has also made other acquisitions in Florida and Alabama.
But, Discovery is fast getting into assisted living and memory care development too. Working in high barrier-to-entry markets in Florida, Discovery opened its first Discovery Village community in Fort Myers in October 2013 and later that year broke ground on its second, Discovery at Naples. The company has two more properties currently in development, one in Bradenton and one in Palm Beach Gardens. Typically, each property contains 60 assisted living units, 30 memory care units and 30 independent living units, which are really considered assisted living “light” and are licensed for AL. For the development pipeline, Discovery has brought in several lending partners.Community & Southern Bank is providing conventional 70% LTV first mortgages, while RED is funding half the equity with mezzanine financing. Discovery also has a big equity partner deal with Boca Raton, Florida-based Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors. Also, RED will help refinance the properties down the road. Each property is estimated to cost approximately $30 million, or $250,000 per unit, and the company expects to have six to 10 total developments completed in the next couple of years.
