BETHESDA, MD—Walker & Dunlop closed on its largest financial transaction to date: the $1.27 billion refinancing of a senior housing portfolio for Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Holiday Retirement, the second largest senior housing operator in the US. The transaction, in fact, is close to double the largest deal Walker & Dunlop did prior to this deal -- a $670 million acquisition and refinancing, coincidentally enough, of another senior housing portfolio.
Walker & Dunlop structured the transaction with seven-year Freddie Mac adjustable rate loans secured by a 78-property portfolio of independent living facilities located in 30 states across the country. The deal was structured and closed in 47 days.
The speediness is part of W&D's appeal over more regulated forms of finance. CEO Willy Walker said as much during the company's third quarter earnings call held in November. The company has obtained significant scale through acquisitions, he said, but is still nimble enough to act like a small company. "Our size has become a differentiator for us, because we have the scale and expertise of large financial services institutions, but we can act in a rapid an entrepreneurial manner," he said.
The deal is also indicative of the ongoing demand for finance from the senior housing and healthcare real estate sector -- a category undergone major consolidation and yet companies still find more assets to acquire and refinance.
Last year, W&D completed $2.8 billion of senior housing financing, including that $678 million deal. Indeed that deal alone illustrates how active this asset class is.
The loan was secured by a 52-property portfolio owned by New Senior Investment Group, which at that point in April, was making its first portfolio acquisition after having been spun off from Newcastle Investment Corp. as a REIT.
Two months later New Senior Investment Group had entered into an agreement to acquire a 28-property portfolio of independent living senior housing properties for $640 million.
The seller was an affiliate of Holiday Retirement.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
