Monarch Senior Living is trying something new in seniors housing development. The company acquired a vacant 17,800 square-foot medical office building (MOB) in La Jolla, California for $7.115 million, which it plans to convert into a 26-unit/44-bed memory care community. Monarch will own the community with Menlo Park, California-based real estate equity sponsor HG Capital, and will also manage it upon completion.
To fund both the purchase and the repurposing of the building, Aaron Beck of NorthMarq Capital arranged a five-year $9.96 million first mortgage loan for Monarch. The financing featured interest-only payments, a floating rate and minimal recourse so as to give the joint venture flexibility throughout the renovation process. MidCap Financial provided the loan. It will be interesting to see if any other operators or developers will look to do the same thing with empty MOB space.
