Investment Group with Brookdale Link Closes $325 Million Fund

Chicago Pacific Founders, the private equity group co-founded by former Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) executive John Rijos, has closed its debut fund, which was oversubscribed at its $325 million hard cap. The group plans to deploy the capital on senior housing and other health care-related investments.

Strategic industry investors and entrepreneurs, as well as pension, endowments, insurance companies, and institutional investors all contributed to the funding, the firm announced Tuesday.

Based both in San Francisco and Chicago, Chicago Pacific Founders was started in 2014; former Brookdale co-president and COO John Rijos was one of the founding operating partners. It has deployed capital in senior housing through its CPF Living Communities platform, and also has deployed capital through Marquee Dental Partners (DSO), and Recovery Ways (Addiction Recovery).

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Part of the attraction of Chicago Pacific Founders is that it is helmed by people with deep first-hand experience in various branches of health care. In addition to Rijos, co-founders included former executives with companies such as Accenture, Optum, Stanford Hospital, and Accretive Health.

“The experience that we bring as former healthcare executives and the respect we have for entrepreneurs is giving us the opportunity to work with world class talent,” Vance Vanier M.D., managing partner, said in a press release issued Tuesday.

With regard to senior housing, CPF’s strategy is to look opportunistically for independent living, assisted living, memory care, and continuing care retirement community (CCRC) acquisitions with turnaround potential, Rijos told Senior Housing News shortly after Chicago Pacific Founders launched.

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“We’re looking opportunistically for situations where we can take advantage of errors in the marketplace,” he said.

The company’s acquisition of Manor at Midville, announced in April, is among the most recent transactions. The eighth property in the CPF Living Communities portfolio, Manor at Midville is a 140-unit independent living community in Tucson, Arizona.

Like other properties in the portfolio, it is being managed by Grace Management, a Minneapolis-based company that CPF acquired a majority stake in to serve as its operating partner.

CPF has indicated in the past that it anticipates investing in between 25 and 30 senior housing communities by the end of 2018. Its typical equity commitment is $75 million.

“We believe that the positive response of our limited partners to this fundraising process signals their conviction in the strength of our investment thesis, the team we’ve assembled and our expertise in creating value and driving returns at our portfolio companies,” said Mary Tolan, CPF co-founder and managing partner, in Tuesday’s press release.

Written by Tim Mullaney

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