CA Ventures to Build Mixed-Use Senior Housing, Medical Office with New Vertical

CA Ventures launched a new service line this week that will share synergies with its fast-growing Anthology Senior Living brand.

The Chicago-based real estate developer and investor announced the formation of a medical office building and life sciences division. To lead it, CA Ventures named Russell Brenner president.

“Unlike some of our other lines, medical office is not a business where we’re [currently] building spec. We believe with some of the other things we can offer through student and senior housing, by delivering a mixed-use product, there is a carrot to offer those anchor tenants,” he told Senior Housing News.

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CA Ventures launched in 2004 as an investor in student housing in top-tier university markets. Over the past eight years, however, the firm has diversified its portfolio to include office, industrial, traditional multifamily and senior housing. Ben Burke is president of Anthology Senior Living, the firm’s senior housing investment, development and operations arm.

Brenner’s career in real estate spans nearly a quarter century, with a particular emphasis on health care real estate development, and he spearheaded the acquisition, development and leasing of more than 7 million square feet of real estate, including medical office buildings and ambulatory surgery centers anchored by health systems such as HCA Healthcare and OhioHealth.

Most recently, he was a partner at Chicago-based Stage Equity Partners and Care Capital. Stage Equity Partners focused on real estate opportunities in midwestern, southeastern and southwestern U.S. markets. Those markets are also where CA’s new line will seek to build its pipeline, Brenner told Senior Housing News.

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CA Ventures plans to invest up to $500 million annually in medical office and life sciences real estate, through a combination of value-add acquisitions and new development. The firm will also leverage its experience and footprint in markets where it is already active. CA Ventures will look for value-add opportunities in its first year. In years two and three, Brenner expects to see a pipeline of two-thirds new spec medical office, as part of mixed-use development with a senior housing component. Brenner sees similar synergies between spec life science development and CA Ventures’ student housing arm.

Brenner believes spec medical office as part of a mixed-use development will be of interest for ambulatory, outpatient and specialized care providers. He also identified medical office as part of the overall continuum of care in health care real estate, and is a segment that can enhance long-term care.

CA Ventures will also look for opportunities to build medical office space in markets where Anthology is already active. Last year, CA Senior Living acquired a 12-property portfolio from Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Senior Living, and currently has 18 properties under the Anthology banner.

“There is a natural synergy between the service lines and we will look at those seriously,” Brenner said.

CA Ventures joins a growing trend of firms developing mixed-use projects combining senior housing with other forms of health care. Maplewood Senior Living has been a leader in this space. The Westport, Connecticut-based owner-operator has long located communities adjacent to medical campuses, is currently building a community on the campus of Penn Medicine Princeton in Plainsboro, New Jersey in partnership with Penn Medicine, and is pursuing a possible partnership with an unnamed health system on the West Coast.

Health care and senior housing are also growing in popularity as components of redeveloping shopping malls into mixed-use projects. Skyview on the Ridge in Irondequoit, New York, will include a $43 million, 157-unit senior apartment development from Pathstone Corporation, as well as an adult day care center from St. Ann’s Community.
In Minnesota, affordable senior housing developer Dominium won approval from the Plymouth City Council last November to redevelop the 17-acre Four Seasons Mall site into three affordable housing buildings — one dedicated for seniors — along with new retail and parking. Oklahoma State University Assistant Professor Dr. Emily Roberts and veteran senior housing architect Jeff Andershon designed a prototype to adapt a vacant 800,000-square-foot in Oklahoma City into a continuing care retirement community, a medical center and workforce housing.

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