Brookfield confirmed as buyer behind $664M Sunrise Senior Living deal

32-property, 3,200-unit portfolio spans U.S. as firm bets big on senior housing

Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt with Sunrise at Mill Basin at 5905 Strickland Avenue (left) and Sunrise at Sheepshead Bay site at 2211 Emmons Avenue (Sunrise, Google Maps,  Todd France/Wikimedia)
Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt with Sunrise at Mill Basin at 5905 Strickland Avenue (left) and Sunrise at Sheepshead Bay site at 2211 Emmons Avenue (Sunrise, Google Maps,  Todd France/Wikimedia)

Brookfield Asset Management has made a massive bet on senior living facilities.

The investment firm was the buyer behind the previously reported sale of Sunrise Senior Living’s 32-unit portfolio by real estate investment trust Healthpeak Properties, a Brookfield representative confirmed to The Real Deal on Tuesday.

The reported price tag was $664 million.

The 3,235-unit portfolio spans the nation, including the 189-bed Sunrise at Sheepshead Bay, at 2211 Emmons Avenue in Brooklyn, for which Brookfield paid about $36 million, according to property records. The acquisition also included the 142-bed Sunrise at Mill Basin, also in Brooklyn, for $31 million.

Crain’s first reported the Sunrise at Sheepshead Bay deal on Tuesday.

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In February, Healthpeak Properties announced the $2.5 billion sale of its senior housing operating portfolio and triple-net senior housing assets, according to Senior Housing News.

At the time, The Registry, a Seattle-area real estate news outlet, reported that Brookfield had purchased two Sunrise communities in the region for $28 million, but the firm was not confirmed as the buyer of the entire Sunrise portfolio, by far the largest piece of the divestment.

While Healthpeak had a second thought about the senior living sector, Brookfield sees it differently — particularly in the long run. The pandemic ravaged those facilities as the coronavirus spread, but the sector has since been recovering.

In addition, long-term demographic trends — such as an aging population — continue to support the sector’s future prospects, the firm wrote in an October note to investors.