Healthcare And Senior Housing Influencers

In many ways, the healthcare real estate sector is a stealth one. Year after year, these assets, primarily medical office, produce steady returns with little fluctuation, delighting its loyal investors. Senior housing, another component of this asset class, is much the same albeit with a little more volatility depending on its fundamentals. Still, navigating these categories is no mean feat for the men and women who specialize in them. Regulations hang heavy over the sector and healthcare real estate has not escaped the current issues troubling commercial real estate, namely high interest rates and falling valuations. In the following pages we acknowledge the accomplishments of these people, their teams and their companies.

INDIVIDUALS

SARAH ANDERSON Managing director of health and alternative real estate assets at Newmark Group Inc., Sarah Anderson began her career in senior housing 11 years ago at a time when the commercial real estate investor landscape was shifting from REIT buyers to private equity looking to invest. She worked alongside private equity buyers entering the market at the time and has been involved in real estate equity and financings totaling more than $10 billion for major institutional and private owners across the country. Today, she leads Newmark’s seniors housing & care platform with responsibility for debt origination and structured finance for senior housing throughout the US. Her expertise includes sourcing construction financing, bridge financing, joint-venture and preferred equity placement, and permanent financing through GSEs and life companies. She has devoted much of her career to educating new lending sources and private equity investment committees on the dynamics of the senior housing industry. More than 20 of the transitions she has closed involving lenders or equity investors during the past six years were new to the senior housing space. During the pandemic, which had a unique impact on the senior housing industry, Anderson proactively shared all market intel she could with clients in a weekly email update. She and her team also prepared a comprehensive market presentation that they shared with all of their clients to help them update investors. To address rising interest rates and the challenging capital markets environment, Anderson and her team have helped top clients refinance troubled loans despite limited liquidity in the space. Anderson has spoken on many expert panels about the senior housing industry. She was recognized as a promising leader early in her career and is an executive board member for the American Seniors Housing Association. She is on the Seniors Housing Council for ULI and is a member of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.

HELEN M. BANKS More than 40 years ago, Helen Banks began her career in healthcare real estate at a time when very few people, let alone women, specialized in the field. Benefiting from the mentorship of industry leaders, Banks developed experience in leasing, property management, retrofit, relocation, acquisition and disposition, working with physicians, owners, investors, lenders and municipal authorities on a national basis. With 45 years of experience, Banks today is the chairman of TICI Group of Companies and managing principal of Stealth Realty Advisors, overseeing day-to-day operations and management of staff. She works with clients on a national basis to ensure their healthcare real estate requirements are met, including advisory/consulting, tactical/strategic, transactional and back office needs. Her companies publish widely read white papers on a quarterly and annual basis, and Banks shares her experience and knowledge as a mentor to individuals with an interest in the healthcare real estate field, many who have gone on to national brokerage houses and healthcare REITs. Recently, she assisted an existing client with a new start-up fund in procuring $100 million in acquisitions during its first year. She continued to expand the company’s client list and assignments as well as grow her staff and Strategic Alliance Partners to 22 partners in 19 states. Banks also was instrumental in establishing the company’s online presence with its website. She is a member of both the national and Texas chapters of Women in Healthcare, and she is passionate about and active in canine rescue and fostering.