Global real estate investment manager Heitman has announced the creation of a joint venture with Signature Senior Lifestyle to develop, own and operate senior care communities in London and the south east of the UK. The project marks Heitman's first property investment in the UK.
Global real estate investment manager Heitman has announced the creation of a joint venture with Signature Senior Lifestyle to develop, own and operate senior care communities in London and the south east of the UK. The project marks Heitman's first property investment in the UK.
Signature currently operates care communities in Kent, Sheffield, and Leicester, with other facilities under construction in Surrey and Essex and several others in development in the south east.
The Heitman/Signature partnership has already acquired a site in Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, and has several other sites under negotiation. The venture intends to develop three senior care homes with a total projected development costs of $120 mln (EUR 87 mln). Signature will serve as operating partner of the venture to develop, market and manage the new communities, including the provision of all resident services.
Construction on the Marlow community is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2012.
'As one of the more defensive real estate asset classes senior care communities are an appealing property sector with which Heitman is very familiar and in which we have successfully invested in the past,' said Gordon Black, senior managing director of Heitman's European private real estate equity group.
Commenting on the new partnership, Thomas B. Newell, Chief Executive Officer of Signature, said: 'We are delighted to have closed this new partnership with Heitman, an experienced global property investor who is backing our growth plan for London and the south east.'
