A flurry of recent deals are proving the strength of the senior living facility sector and the broader Chicago commercial market.
Four Chicagoland senior living communities have traded in the past two weeks totaling $217 million in sales, public records show.
Three of the four sales were completed at a markup from their prior sale price, according to property records.
The priciest transaction was between Des Moines, Iowa-based LCS Senior Living and Oak Brook-based commercial real estate giant Inland Real Estate Group.
Inland bought the 156-unit Clarendale of Mokena senior living community at 21536 South Wolf Road in Mokena from LCS for $72 million in a deal that closed last week, according to public records.
The deal appears to be a win for LCS, which bought the property for $53 million in 2018 with a $34 million mortgage from Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, which was later acquired by JLL. A new mortgage for the property has not been recorded publicly yet.
Ahead of the sale, the property was generating strong returns, reports from CMBS loan tracking service MorningStar indicate. As of September, the property was 98 percent occupied, and its debt service coverage ratio was 2.3, meaning its net operating income was more than double its debt costs, MorningStar reported.
Demand in the sector is expected to grow as the baby boomer generation ages. The population of Americans over age 75 is expected to rise by more than 4 million people by 2030, according to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled in a report from PWC.
The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care expects that limited new supply and steady growth in demand will drive the average senior housing occupancy rate above 90 percent this year, potentially reaching the highest occupancy rate reported in the 20 years that the NIC has tracked this data, PwC noted.
Also in the suburbs, New York-based real estate investment firm Town Lake bought the 198-unit Sheridan at Green Oaks for $65 million from Chicago-based senior housing specialists, Senior Living Corporation, records show. Town Lake purchased the suburban property at 29330 North Waukegan Road in Lake Bluff with a $46 million loan from Capital One’s commercial lending arm.
The firm rebranded the community Modena Green Oaks.
Prior details on Senior Living’s ownership of the property are unclear, but records show that the company took out a $44 million loan from Pinnacle Bank against the property in 2022, indicating that the recent $65 million sale was likely a markup from its prior purchase price.
In Chicago, one senior living facility traded for the first time in nearly 30 years, and the new buyer plans to convert it to apartments.
A venture led by Chicago-based Annenberg Investments, Ltd, bought the senior living property in Lakeview at 3121 North Sheridan Road for $30 million from Chicago-based REIT Ventas, according to a press release from Berkadia.
When Ventas put the 296-unit property on the market last year, marketing materials noted that the property could be converted to apartments because its operator, Brookdale Senior Living, had chosen not to renew its lease agreement with Ventas.
The move reflects confidence in Chicago’s hot rental market where rent was up by 3.8 percent, year-over-year, at the end of 2025, according to Yardi Matrix.
Not every recent senior housing deal has ended in a win for the seller, however.
Blackstone sold its Lake Barrington Woods senior living facility last month to Sabra Health Care REIT for $50 million, which came out to a roughly 30 percent discount from the $73 million New York-based Blackstone paid in 2017.