Welltower Sells $745 Million Senior Lifestyle Portfolio to Blackstone

Private equity firm Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) increased its senior housing holdings in the first quarter of 2017, acquiring 26 properties operated by Senior Lifestyle from real estate investment trust Welltower (NYSE: HCN) for $745 million.*

This was one of the largest deals to close in the first quarter of the year, according to a Thursday blog post from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC).

It involved 3,400 units at a price per unit of more than $200,000, sources involved with the deal told Senior Housing News on condition of anonymity.

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Chicago-based Senior Lifestyle confirmed the transaction, which it previously had not announced, to Senior Housing News. Family-owned Senior Lifestyle operated 204 communities as of 2016. It has communities in 29 states.

Toledo, Ohio-based Welltower did not immediately respond to inquiries from Senior Housing News on Thursday evening. The REIT has been aggressively repositioning its portfolio, undertaking billions in dispositions to end 2016.

New York-based Blackstone has been active in the senior housing sector recently; also in the first quarter of 2017, it closed on a $1.1 billion acquisition of 64 properties operated by Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), which it purchased from REIT HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP).

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Early in 2017, Blackstone also was rumored to be in talks to acquire Brookdale in whole or in part, although reports indicate that its interest in the nation’s largest senior living provider has waned. Just last week, however, Blackstone was floated as a potential buyer of Kindred Healthcare (NYSE: KND), one of the country’s largest post-acute providers.

*Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article stated that the acquisition involved 26 properties sold for about $747 million, as reported by NIC. It has been updated with information provided to Senior Housing News by sources involved with the deal.

Written by Tim Mullaney

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