Seniors Housing Business is the magazine that helps you navigate the evolution of the seniors housing industry.
Issue link: https://seniorshousingbusiness.epubxp.com/i/484276
www.seniorshousingbusiness.com 61 February-March 2015 n Seniors Housing Business lio of more than 5,000 loans total- ing roughly $28.6 billion through approximately 100 capital provid- ers. The company answers loan requests from $1 million mez- zanine options to $250 million portfolio loans. According to its 2014 servicing portfolio across all property types, Grandbridge's lending activity by capital provider is broken down as follows: n 42 percent via insurance companies n 39 percent via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac n 13 percent via CMBS lenders n 3 percent via banks n 3 percent is from other capital sources The origins of the originator Grandbridge Real Estate Capital LLC was formed out of a merger in 2007 with a com- mercial mortgage banking enterprise known as Laureate Capital LLC, which was owned by BB&T.; Grandbridge was formally known as Collateral Mortgage Capital LLC, and changed its name to Collateral Real Estate Capital LLC in 2006. The privately owned company was based in Birmingham, Ala., before the merger. Since Collateral Real Estate Capital was purchased by BB&T; and renamed Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, the company has acquired Houston-based Live Oak Capital (2008); Louisville, Ky.-based BFG Realty Advisors (2009); Dallas-based Quantum First Capital (2009); and Southern California-based Dwyer-Curlett & Co. (2012). Thomas has been part of the seniors housing division of Grandbridge since 2003, when it was known as Collateral Mortgage Capital. Since then, Thomas has been involved with more than $5.5 billion in seniors housing transactions. He credits BB&T;'s commitment to seniors housing for his team's success. "BB&T; as an organization is heavily committed to seniors housing," says Thomas. "There's a pretty heavy commitment to the space through our healthcare cor- porate banking, healthcare invest- ment banking and our insurance arms. We touch and serve clients across the spectrum of whatever their fnancial or advisory needs might be in this space." Today, Grandbridge has more than 200 professionals in offces across the country. The company has its strongest presence in the Southeast with offces in Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Vir- ginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Even though it's based in the Southeast, Grandbridge's seniors housing group is active across the country. "Our seniors housing group is a national practice," says Thomas. "We're concluding seniors hous- ing and healthcare transactions nationwide. There's no reason we couldn't go to Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii, which we've done business in before." Thomas and his team's recent seniors housing transactions nationwide include a $4.5 mil- lion supplemental loan for Noble Village of Sugarloaf in Suwanee, Georgia; a $6 million acquisition loan for Acadia Assisted Living in Dallas; and a $9 million refnance loan for Woodland Terrace at the Oaks in Allentown, Pa. A strong asset class Grandbridge Real Estate Capi- tal is bullish on seniors housing for the same reasons that inves- tors and developers are bullish: The real estate fundamentals are attractive, and more and more baby boomers are crossing into the seniors housing age thresh- old. Seniors housing is currently enjoying a stability not univer- sally shared by its counterparts, even during the midst of the recession. "Even at the worst of times, most seniors housing owners and operators might have experi- enced a slight dip in occupancy, but generally still had stable to positive rent growth throughout the period," says Thomas. "It compares very favorably to the other industries." In addition to rent growth, Thomas says occupancy dur- ing the downturn was still in the upper 80 percent range for seniors housing assets. Since the recession ended, the asset class has been a magnet for investors looking for acquisition fnancing, developers looking for construction fnancing and owners looking for permanent fnancing, so Grandbridge's ser- vices have been in demand from a variety of borrowers. Grandbridge and BB&T; are also attracted to seniors housing because residents tend to stay at a community for a longer length of time than typical multi- family residents. "We're looking at some age-restricted apartment com- munities where the residents have stayed 10 to 15 years," says Thomas. "As you move up the acuity scale, residents are staying two-and-a-half to three years on average in independent living facilities. That means less unit turnover and less wear-and-tear, which ultimately helps to bolster investment returns." Thomas declined to forecast loan production volume for 2015, but he did say Grandbridge is going to continue expanding its capabilities in the seniors housing space. Grandbridge has begun a state-by-state initiative, starting with Tennessee, to target seniors housing owners and operators to build relationships between them, local bankers and Grandbridge. "It's a very focused effort to dig even deeper and to look for relationships within our market at a very granular level," says Thomas. "We'll continue to work through the states and identify lenders that can close deals and assist seniors housing clients. It will really beneft our clients going forward." n The Thunderbird Retirement Resort is a 345-unit seniors housing community in Phoenix. Grandbridge Real Estate Capital closed the acquisition loan for the property in 43 days on behalf of the borrower, ROC Seniors Housing Fund Manager.