Sunrise Senior Living to manage Health Care REIT properties in UK

Health Care REIT (HCN) has acquired from Gracewell Healthcare 11 seniors housing communities in southern England valued at about $257 million. Sunrise Senior Living, the management company in which HCN owns a 24 percent interest, has purchased Gracewell’s management company and will manage the properties, which have a total of 767 units, going forward.

“This latest acquisition brings together the operating expertise of Sunrise, the development expertise of Gracewell and the strategic capital of HCN,” Tom DeRosa, HCN’s CEO, said in an HCN press release.

Sunrise, based in McLean, Va., also has entered into an agreement with HCN and Gracewell’s founders, Tim Street and Daniel Kay, who will continue to be financed by Patron Capital, a pan-European institutional investor focused on property-backed investments. The agreement includes the redevelopment of one community, the development of 11 additional properties that are expected to open beginning in 2016 and the management of a pipeline of future projects of approximately five new properties per year. The acquisition pipeline is valued at $269 million, according to HCN.

“We are extremely pleased to expand our operations and footprint in the United Kingdom with Gracewell Healthcare, a company whose mission so closely aligns with ours,” Chris Winkle, Sunrise’s CEO, said in a Sunrise press release. “We believe Sunrise’s communities and Gracewell’s care homes will mutually benefit from our expanded operating platform, allowing us to provide our high-quality care to even more seniors.”

Sunrise will continue to operate its current portfolio of 27 communities throughout the United Kingdom under the Sunrise brand. As of July 1, Sunrise operated 289 communities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with a total unit capacity of about 26,200.