A joint venture between Centric Development and Sage Equities has sold a five-property Class A senior housing portfolio in the northern Atlanta suburbs for $147 million, JLL announced Aug. 4, in an all-cash deal with an institutional investor that is keeping the incumbent operator in place.
The portfolio, known as the Brickmont Portfolio, totals 611 units and 701 beds of assisted living and memory care across five communities developed between 2018 and 2022. JLL’s National Seniors Housing Capital Markets team represented the seller; the buyer, described as an experienced publicly traded institutional investor, is retaining Claiborne Senior Living as operator.
Recently built, below replacement cost
“This portfolio offered a unique opportunity to acquire five high-quality and recently constructed properties below replacement cost in affluent Atlanta submarkets,” said Jay Wagner, a JLL senior managing director who worked the deal alongside fellow senior managing directors Rick Swartz and Aaron Rosenzweig, senior director Tim Hosmer and analyst Erik Von Hamm.
The communities were built with amenities aimed at the higher end of the assisted living and memory care market, including kitchenettes with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, 10-foot ceilings, restaurant-style dining, movie theaters, bistros, art studios, game rooms and courtyards.
Sellers with deep senior housing track records
Sage Equities, founded in 2002, is a real estate investment firm focused on U.S. multifamily and senior housing that manages more than $2.5 billion in properties for institutional and high-net-worth investors. Centric Development is a vertically integrated owner, operator and developer specializing in Class A seniors housing that currently manages seven communities across Georgia and Virginia; its leadership has executed more than $26 billion in real estate transactions across 29 states over their careers.
The sale adds to a wave of senior housing capital markets activity this month, following Harbert Management’s $455 million sale of five senior living communities and Brookdale Senior Living’s pending $157 million acquisition of 17 communities, both disclosed within the past week. Senior housing has emerged as one of the most active corners of commercial real estate investment this year, with merger-and-acquisition activity in the sector nearing $4 billion in the second quarter alone, driven largely by assisted living deals as investors bet on demographic tailwinds from an aging U.S. population.
What it means
The $147 million price and portfolio specifics are drawn directly from JLL’s own release as broker on the transaction β a primary source for the deal’s terms, though JLL’s characterization of the price as “below replacement cost” reflects the firm’s own market assessment rather than an independently appraised figure. The buyer’s identity was not disclosed beyond being described as an experienced publicly traded institutional investor, a common practice in brokered institutional transactions.
What to watch: senior housing has drawn heavy investor interest this year as an aging population supports steady demand, and recently built, well-located portfolios like Brickmont β sold at what JLL describes as a discount to replacement cost β are likely to keep attracting institutional capital even as new construction in the sector remains constrained by financing costs.
