Posts

IRA Capital Launches $500M Fund Targeting Senior Housing, Healthcare Real Estate

/in /by

Private equity firm IRA Capital has launched a $500 million closed-end fund focused on the acquisition of medical properties and senior housing assets in the U.S.

IRA Healthcare Real Estate Fund will target the acquisition, development and financing of healthcare assets in high barrier-to-entry and supply-constrained markets. The California-based company projects the fund will have annualized net returns of 14% to 16%.

“We intend to acquire assets across the risk spectrum with a focus on core-plus and value-add opportunities,” IRA Capital co-founder Jay Gangwal said in a statement. “The diverse strategy will result in a balanced portfolio with a combination of yield and appreciation, while providing downside protection given the needs-based demand.”

The fund is open to both institutional clients and high net worth investors, including domestic and foreign endowments, pension funds, insurance companies and family offices. Southern California-based IRA’s principals are adding their own capital to the fund, according to the release.

The push to acquire healthcare and senior housing assets comes as the sector slowly recovers from pandemic-era financial challenges, inflationary pressures and decreased occupancy. Overall occupancy at senior housing facilities was around 78% in April, up 5% from pandemic lows but still down from the 87% seen before the global health crisis.

The healthcare sector was at a moment of “peak volatility” in February, according to Spencer Levy, global client strategist and senior economic advisor at CBRE. The near-term uncertainty is being exacerbated by high interest rates, but Levy said an expected peak of rates later this year will present opportunities for buyers as asset values are likely to increase in one to two years.

“The current capital markets environment is also presenting unique re-positioning opportunities that we expect will create significant value and generate outsized returns,” Gangwal said.

 

Source: Bisnow

investments_target_canstockphoto30207236 800x533

Fund Of Texas-Based Skywalker Property Partners Targets $250M In Investments, Including Medical And Senior Housing

/in , /by

Skywalker Property Partners has become the latest investment firm preparing to take advantage of turbulence in the commercial real estate market, with the launch of its fourth and largest fund,

The Leverage Strikes Back LLC, that has the capacity to make up to $250 million of opportunistic investments in Texas and surrounding states.

Skywalker Property, the fund’s manager, completed the $20 million capital raise during the first quarter of the year. The fund will target investments with opportunistic return profiles in the $10 million to $30 million range. Investments could vary from brick and mortar to note-buying to joint venture equity, including distressed assets and new developments. The acquisition strategy will focus on multiple asset classes, including medical, senior housing, residential, retail, mixed use, office and industrial, with the goal of completing the investments by December 2025.

The company’s first investment will be in a project in the Interstate 35 corridor in Texas, but executives did not provide further details on the transaction.

“We anticipate the CRE market will be faced with a wave of maturing loans held by owners who will be struggling to refinance under-performing projects amid tighter capital conditions,” Gary Walker, founder & president of the Arlington, Texas,-based firm, said in a prepared statement. “The new fund is well-positioned to capitalize on those opportunities.”

William Welder, Skywalker Property’s director of acquisitions and capital, called the new fund a milestone for the 33-year-old firm.

 “It is the largest fund in the company’s history and a significant shift from its two-year focus on dispositions,” Welder said in prepared remarks

Welder joined Skywalker Property in 2021 after leading commercial real estate lending for one of the nation’s largest financial institutions.

“The firm has longtime relationships with community banks and will use its deep ties in the CRE and banking communities to source investments,” Welder said.

The team expects opportunities to increase if interest rates remain at the current level or tick up, further impacting the availability and affordability of capital for critical needs, including refinances. Providing joint venture equity, for example, would be a value-add opportunity for developers and investors facing capital shortages for construction starts, completions or improvements to existing projects being primed for repositioning.

Previous Transactions

Skywalker Property identifies, underwrites, acquires and executes highly opportunistic and value-add investments on behalf of funds including When Opportunity Knocks LLC and Cash Flow Fever LLC. The firm currently has a portfolio of about $200 million of office, industrial and retail properties in Texas and surrounding states.

At the end of 2022, Skywalker Property sold three office properties in North Texas and Oklahoma on behalf of three managed funds. The properties sold were Brookhollow Riverside, a 119,121-square-foot office building in Grand Prairie, Texas; Crescent Parc, a 61-unit medical and office condominium in McKinney, Texas; and a 36,590-square-foot office building that houses Miller-Motte College in Tulsa, Okla.

In September, the firm invested in a shuttered 116-bed assisted living and skilled care facility in Waco, Texas, with Utah-based Zelevie Health that has been rebranded and reopened as Zelevie Health of Waco. The investment was made by Come Together Prop Co LLC, a single-purpose entity of Skywalker’s When Opportunity Knocks investment fund and marked Skywalker’s entry in the asset class.

Also in September, Skywalker sold 141,480-square-foot One Northwind Plaza, an eight-story office building in Houston acquired in March 2018, to Versa Creative Tower LLC. It had been the firm’s first Houston asset and was purchased on behalf of its When Opportunity Knocks fund.

 

Source: Commercial Property Executive

REIT Welltower Still Looking To Acquire Healthcare Realty Trust After $5B Bid Rejected

/0 Comments/in /by

Welltower remains interested in making a play for fellow real estate investment trust Healthcare Realty Trust after making an all-cash bid for it earlier this year.

Welltower, a REIT that owns senior housing, medical facilities and medical offices, made a $4.8B all-cash bid for Healthcare Realty Trust in February, The Wall Street Journal reported. The offer came soon after Healthcare Realty agreed to a merger with Healthcare Trust of America.

Welltower offered to pay the $163M termination fee that the Nashville-based Healthcare Realty would’ve had to pay for backing out of the $10B, mostly stock deal, but Healthcare Realty’s board decided it wasn’t a better offer than the merger and rejected it in March.

Welltower’s offer was for $31.75 a share, and it could make another offer, the WSJ reports. An acquisition would give Welltower a deeper medical office presence, an area it has already been growing in recent months.

In August, Welltower bought six medical office buildings in New York City via a joint venture with Aspect Health, paying $98M. It has also been picking up senior housing at a fast clip; last summer it spent $1.58B on a portfolio of 86 senior housing sites from Holiday Retirement. In November, it bought 14 senior housing properties managed by Watermark Retirement.

“Since pivoting to offense 13 months ago, Welltower is pleased to have executed on its value-driven investment thesis, largely through granular and off-market transactions completed at a significant discount to estimated replacement cost,” CEO Shankh Mitra said at the time, Senior Housing News reported.

Healthcare Realty’s shares jumped to $28.55 Monday, per the WSJ, an increase of 5.4%. Healthcare Trust’s fell by 1.6% to $29.96.

 

Source: Bisnow