A recent partnership between development company The LaSalle Group and real estate investment trust National Health Investors (NYSE: NHI) will provide options for future senior housing growth that are “limitless,” LaSalle Group President John Barbee tells Senior Housing News.
The partnership launched with an initial sale-leaseback transaction involving five of LaSalle’s Autumn Leaves communities for a 15-year term with renewal options. Announced in late March, the partnership was touted by The LaSalle Group as allowing both companies to jointly pursue new and future growth opportunities.
“The transaction will be a foundation for what the partnership will become,” Barbee told SHN during a recent interview.
Irving, Texas-based The LaSalle Group is a longtime developer of senior housing communities and manages 46 Autumn Leaves communities specializing in memory care. While demand for memory care may stack up similarly to assisted living properties from an investor perspective, The LaSalle Group notes more demand for memory care overall than in recent years.
“There is more demand for memory care than there used to be. There’s a need for it, unfortunately,” Barbee says.
The company has a relatively new 54-bed prototype that received recognition from national industry association Argentum in its 2016 Senior Living by Design competition for its sensory engagement features, relaxation room and nurse call system, among other features. The model developed by The LaSalle Group, however, is a constant work in progress, Barbee says, due to changing care needs and processes, as well as rapidly evolving technology.
The company has plans to develop at least 6 communities this year and next, with the potential to grow that annual pace in 2019, with NHI as a parter in that growth.
“Our expertise in memory care, and their expertise and resources in health care, provides options that are limitless,” he says.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
Companies featured in this article:
