A new senior housing investment advisory group launched this week, led by a team of senior housing industry members including founding partners formerly of Marcus & Millichap’s senior housing investment arm. The new outpost, Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, says it is targeting the expanding seniors housing demographic with room to grow as a strategic advisory, brokerage, consultancy and capital solutions provider.

Based in Chicago, the group is led by founding partners Jacob Gehl, Ben Firestone and Chris Hyldahl, formerly of Marcus & Millichap, and includes a capital partnership with Housing & Healthcare Finance LLC, an FHA-insured mortgage lender for seniors housing and skilled nursing properties.

Its board of directors is led by former Brookdale co-president and chief operating officer John Rijos who retired from his Brookdale post in June.

Blueprint is targeting a holistic approach to healthcare real estate that includes both seniors housing and nursing home properties as well as medical office buildings, its executives told SHN in an interview.

“We seek to provide a slightly more analytical approach in addition to just listing and selling properties. We have experience on our team from institutional owners and financial intermediaries in the space to focus on not just sales but also the nuances of seniors housing finance,” Firestone told SHN.

The company views the property types as “siblings,” and is taking cues from recent REIT acquisitions that align them rather than keep them separate.

“As the baby boomers age and more segments of the population enter into the healthcare system through the Affordable Care Act, healthcare-related properties are likely to see a major boost,” Gehl says. “Whereas seniors housing and medical office used to be considered cousins, they are more like siblings now. Instead of viewing the seniors housing as a sub-sector of multifamily housing and medical office as sub-sector of office, the two should be viewed as healthcare real estate.”

The advisory group is headquartered in Chicago with Hyldahl, a managing director and founding partner  leading Blueprint’s West Coast operations. Industry veterans Michael Segal, senior associate; Ryan Chase, senior analyst; and Mario Wilson, associate serve as additional team members.

The founding partners say they will focus on assisting companies interested in entering the space, as well as those who are looking to build, acquire or expand.

“This ‘Silver Tsunami’ environment will create new opportunities for healthcare operators, investors and service providers,” Gehl says.

While they are currently mum on partnerships under way, Blueprint’s founders say they have a “robust pipeline” of activity ahead including interested private equity parties that are looking to invest or have already done so.

“As the sector expands, more capital will be coming into it,” Firestone says. “We will be well positioned as more capital is deployed.”

Written by Elizabeth Ecker