Chicago-based private real estate investment management firm Harrison Street and vertically integrated senior housing operator Anthology Senior Living are joining forces to develop three communities in Florida and Massachusetts.
The new JV encompasses an 86-unit community in Natick and a 105-unit community in Millis, Massachusetts; and a 130-unit community in Boynton Beach, Florida. The three communities are planned to offer assisted living and memory care services, and are located in “strong markets backed by growing aging and affluent populations yet demonstrate high barriers to entry,” according to an announcement about the joint venture.
Anthology — the senior housing operating platform of Chicago-based CA, led by 2021 Senior Housing News Changemaker Ben Burke — is slated to add the three communities to its 23-community management portfolio and partner with Harrison Street on development.
Anthology had explored entering the Boston and Boynton Beach markets through development for several years, and those markets also align with Harrison Street’s criteria for investment, according to Harrison Street Director Dustin Warner.
“After CA launched the Anthology platform to enter the senior housing space, we began conversations on ways to further expand our relationship,” Warner told Senior Housing News. “The site selection and demographic profile of the markets fit very well into the criteria we look for in senior housing.”
This is not the first time CA and Harrison Street have worked together. The two companies have collaborated on student housing projects since 2008.
“Since then, we have expanded with CA with further student housing investments throughout the United States as well as Europe,” Warner said.
He added that Harrison Street and CA/Anthology are evaluating future growth opportunities through senior housing developments, acquisitions and recapitalization similar to how they grew together in the student housing space.
“We will continue to stay true to the way we have always invested, which is to focus on high-quality properties backed by solid demographics and partnering with experienced operators and developers,” Warner said.
Harrison Street has also been on an acquisition spree in 2021 after raising money in late 2020 with the overall goal of building a fund worth up to $2 billion.
The company in June bulked up its senior housing holdings by acquiring a 24-property portfolio operated by Oakmont Senior Living for about $1.2 billion. Half of those properties were owned by Healthpeak (NYSE: PEAK), while the other 12 were acquired from Gallaher Companies. And in February, Harrison Street also acquired from Healthpeak 12 properties operated by Atria Senior Living for $312 million.
CA and Anthology, meanwhile, have pursued a strategy of developing communities with larger footprints and access to the continuum of care.
“Going forward, you’re going to see a lot of continuum-of-care models, a lot of larger-footprint models,” Andrew Agins, senior vice president of asset management at Anthology, told SHN in November 2020. “We’re going to continue to grow, and we’ll take advantage of the markets and hopefully build a really robust portfolio of communities all over the country.”
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