Welltower Nabs $1.1B West Coast Senior Housing Portfolio

The Regency in Woods, Calif., is one of the 19 properties Welltower will be acquiring.

Toledo, Ohio—Welltower Inc. is set to acquire a senior housing portfolio from Vintage Senior Living for a total of $1.15 billion. The purchase includes 19 properties offering 2,590 units in a mix of independent living, assisted living and memory care communities in Southern and Northern California, including the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets.

With this acquisition, Welltower will own 114 health care properties, making it the largest owner of senior housing in both Southern and Northern California. Once the transaction closes, the company will transition property management of the portfolio to three of its operating partners: Senior Resource Group (11 properties), Sunrise Senior Living (seven properties) and Silverado (1 property).

Sunrise is Welltower’s largest operating partner and Silverado operates 28 other communities for Welltower primarily located on the West Coast.

“This acquisition reinforces our high-quality health care real estate portfolio and leading presence in two of the top U.S. metro markets,” said Tom DeRosa, CEO of Welltower. “We have a unique platform for delivering operational improvements and driving value for our shareholders. Together with our operating partners, we are excited about the opportunities to provide the best senior care with a focus on wellness and innovation.”

This purchase expands Welltower’s already extensive West Coast portfolio, which includes senior housing, post-acute care and outpatient medical properties. The properties are also located “in attractive markets including irreplaceable locations near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Nob Hill, with a growing population of seniors, favorable supply-and-demand fundamentals and high barriers to entry,” DeRosa added.

“These markets have strong median household incomes and home values, which are important indicators of a market’s capacity to afford seniors housing and care services and absorb rate growth overtime,” Barbara Montresor of Welltower told MHN. 

Two of the premier properties Welltower will acquirefrom Vintage include: Golden Gate in San Francisco, offering 103 assisted living and 15 memory care units; and Coventry in San Francisco, offering 92 assisted living and 21 memory care units. SRG will operated both properties after closing.

Vintage Senior Living will continue to manage the communities until the transaction is completed. The purchase is expected to close in tranches beginning this September.

In terms of Welltower’s future plans, “after completing our acquisition on the West Coast, we’ll have the top market position in New York, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco,” Montresor said. “We are also focused on Washington, D.C., Toronto and London.”