IRVINE, CALIF. — American Healthcare REIT Inc. (NYSE: AHR) has acquired eight senior housing communities in six states for $696 million. The properties, which collectively comprise 867 units and were built between 2020 and 2022, are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Georgia. Newmark acted as AHR’s real estate advisor for the transaction.
While there were multiple sellers, all eight properties were marketed together. AHR purchased 10 communities all together but assigned the purchase and sale agreements of two properties to another institutional investor.
“This series of transactions is an example of disciplined capital allocation supported by strong execution,” says Jeff Hanson, chairman and CEO of AHR. “We understood that only a solution for all 10 communities would clear the market. Rather than either walking away from a highly strategic opportunity or compromising our capital allocation discipline to secure it, we constructed a solution that required neither.”
The purchase gives the Irvine-based company a larger presence in the Northeastern seniors housing market. The Northeast properties in the portfolio are located primarily in wealthy suburban markets such as Philadelphia’s Main Line, Westport, Conn., and suburban Boston.
AHR is strengthening this newfound foothold via a new operating relationship with Massachusetts-based LCB Senior Living, which developed and managed five of the properties. AHR transitioned management of the other two Northeast properties to LCB post-acquisition.
“We have sought a relationship with LCB for some time, and we have been looking for the right way into these East Coast markets,” says Gabe Willhite, president and chief operating officer of AHR. “This gave us both, at scale.”
The final property, The Holbrook of Sugar Hill in metro Atlanta, was developed and managed by luxury senior living provider Holbrook Life, which AHR is retaining as the operator.
This is AHR’s second large senior living portfolio purchase announced this week. The company recently acquired a 464-unit portfolio from Kensington Senior Living for $572 million. AHR also intends to acquire the remaining two properties in the eight-community portfolio, bringing the total purchase price to $873 million. That sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
In addition to these acquisitions, AHR recently announced that Aric Chang has been appointed as the REIT’s new chief financial officer, effective Oct. 1. AHR’s stock price closed on Wednesday, Sept. 2 at $56.21 per share, up from $41.99 a year ago, a nearly 34 percent increase.
- Matthew Auchincloss