Columbia Pacific Advisors To Acquire Hawthorn Retirement Group
June 23, 2017
SEATTLE–Columbia Pacific Advisors and its founders, some of the most experienced investors in U.S. senior housing, have announced the pending acquisition of Hawthorn Retirement Group, a Vancouver, Wash.-based firm that owns and operates senior housing communities in North America.
Hawthorn is a vertically integrated senior living company that owns, develops and operates communities located across 20 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Hawthorn has 55 communities in operation, with another 24 communities under construction or in pre-development. In addition to the real estate portfolio, the acquisition will include Hawthorn’s management and construction businesses.
Columbia Pacific Advisors, based in Seattle, has a management team with more than 100 years of investment, development and operational experience in the senior housing sector, who have executed on more than $13 billion in related transactions in the last 25 years. One of the firm’s founders, Dan Baty, is a pioneer in the senior living industry.
Over the past ten years, funds managed by Columbia Pacific Advisors (CPA) have developed or acquired ownership interests in more than 300 senior living communities comprising more than 25,000 units. Additionally, the firm is active across other real estate sectors, including the acquisition and development of over 1,300 multi-family units and more than 1.2 million square feet of commercial space throughout the U.S.
Columbia Pacific’s purchase of Hawthorn is expected to close later this summer. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
The principal owners of Hawthorn, Bart and Brad Colson, Norm Brenden and Pat Kennedy, have all known and worked with Dan Baty for many years. Bill Colson and Dan Baty were the primary owners of Holiday Retirement prior to its sale to Fortress Investment Group in 2007. At the time of the sale to Fortress, Holiday was the largest owner and operator of independent living senior housing in the country. Bart Colson and Brad Colson are Bill’s sons, and Bart was Holiday’s COO for 10 years prior to the sale to Fortress. Norm Brenden and Pat Kennedy were also high-ranking executives at Holiday.
“We have a deep appreciation for Hawthorn’s outstanding company culture and we look forward to supporting the existing leadership in the next phase of the company,” said Columbia Pacific Advisors co-founder Dan Baty.
“We are buying what we believe to be one of the best senior living companies ahead of a huge and quickly approaching demographic trend of an aging U.S. population,” said Alex Washburn, Managing Partner and co-founder of Columbia Pacific Advisors. “The Hawthorn platform consists of high quality properties and a substantial pipeline of opportunity with the right operator to meet head-on the trends and challenges of the senior living industry.”
“We couldn’t be happier to continue our work with Dan and the entire team at Columbia Pacific Advisors,” said Pat Kennedy, the CEO of Hawthorn, who will stay on as a Hawthorn senior executive. “Dan understands who we are and how we operate, and collectively the CPA and Hawthorn teams have deep experience in the industry. We look forward to working with CPA, one of the leaders in our industry, and helping Hawthorn continue to grow.”