$600M deal: Ventas buys 5 Bristals, Encore site in Long Island senior housing push

One of the country’s largest owners of senior housing is increasing its presence on Long Island as the region’s aging population boosts demand for assisted living.

Ventas Inc., a Chicago-based real estate investment trust, has agreed to acquire six local retirement communities for more than $600 million.

They are The Bristal Assisted Living facilities in Bethpage, Holtsville, Jericho, Mount Sinai and West Babylon, as well as Encore Luxury Living apartments, an independent living community adjacent to The Bristal at Jericho.

Ventas’ investment increases its share of Long Island’s assisted living market and follows a $3 billion senior housing expansion since early 2024. The $30 billion publicly traded company now has more than 800 communities in its portfolio.

Locally, Ventas will continue to benefit from tax breaks awarded to the properties’ previous owners, according to documents reviewed by Newsday.

The sellers are Jericho-based B2K Development and Chicago-based global investment firm Harrison Street, which partnered on the development of the properties from 2016 to 2022. Harrison Street’s announcement of the deal Wednesday did not disclose an exact sale price.

A spokesperson for B2K declined to comment on the transaction details but said staff would not be affected by the sale.

There are 24 Bristal facilities in the metropolitan area, including 16 in Nassau and Suffolk counties. State records show the six properties involved in the Ventas deal employed 470 people in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available.

If the same management company remains in place at The Bristal facilities, the sale of the real estate shouldn’t affect the day-to-day experience of residents, said Adam Flattau, who runs Senior Care Authority, a Melville-based placement service for families.

“My confidence level remains very high,” he said of The Bristal facilities. “Assisted living in general, when operated correctly, provides an incredibly valuable and needed service for our seniors.”

Ultimate Care Management, a division of B2K that runs The Bristal locations, will continue operating the facilities involved in the deal, according to a July letter sent by attorney Peter L. Curry on behalf of B2K and Harrison Street to the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. Newsday obtained the letter under the state Freedom of Information Law.

B2K and Harrison Street also contacted the Nassau County IDA, Babylon Town IDA and Brookhaven Town IDA in July, requesting that tax breaks awarded to the properties be transferred to Ventas.

The IDAs agreed. The tax breaks won’t expire until 2029, 2032, 2035 and 2043, depending on the property, and remain contingent on fulfilling the original employment promises made in exchange for the benefits, state records show.

The six properties cost a total of $323 million to construct and, as a group, have saved nearly $17 million in property, sales and mortgage-recording taxes since 2023, records show.

Curry, the attorney representing B2K and Harrison Street, said the Ventas holding company established for the Long Island properties — BRTL Propco HoldCo LLC — is well-funded, with more than $500 million in capital, according to the July 15 letter.

Ventas targets upscale assisted living as it ramps up national acquisitions

Ventas, the second-largest owner of senior housing in the U.S., already owns 13 senior housing communities on Long Island, run by national operators Atria Senior Living and Sunrise Senior Living.

Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, allow investors to generate income from real estate without owning or managing the properties directly. Ventas focuses on health care-related properties, including senior housing and medical office buildings.

In acquiring Atria, The Bristal and Sunrise facilities, Ventas appears focused on higher-end senior housing, said Tracey Kuczinski, who runs The Senior Advocate, a Long Island company that helps families find housing.

When ownership changes, she said, families should watch for staffing turnover as a proxy for the new owner’s commitment to quality.

“It ain’t the steeple, it’s the people,” she said. “If all of a sudden the administrator you loved who’s been there for five years is gone, there’s a reason they left.”

Research on REIT investments in nursing homes — not assisted living — has shown evidence of staffing shifts following acquisitions. A 2023 study in Health Affairs found that such investments were associated with increased staffing of licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants. In smaller transactions, some facilities replaced registered nurses with less expensive staff. Larger acquisitions did not show the same effect.

Ventas has expanded rapidly, spending $3 billion since early 2024 to acquire new facilities, said Chris Hudgins, a senior analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Ventas owns 1,400 properties, including more than 800 senior housing communities.

“They’ve been an avid buyer in this space,” he said. “We have a lot of the Baby Boomer generation getting older and we’ve seen the demand for senior housing properties — whether that's assisted living or other kinds of senior housing properties — have all seen an increase in recent years as that population ages.”

In a July investor presentation, Ventas cited Oxford Economics data projecting the U.S. population age 80 and older will rise 28% in the next five years.

Long Island’s aging population has contributed to greater demand for senior housing. From 2015 to 2023, the population age 65 and older increased about 19% to nearly 505,000 from about 423,000, according to an analysis of the latest Census data by Newsday's nextLI. 

Since 2021, occupancy rates in assisted living facilities — an industry performance indicator — have increased as construction of new buildings slowed amid rising interest rates and higher costs, said Kevin Brown, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar.

Ventas reported its occupancy rate topped 88% in June for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The company generated $4.9 billion in revenue last year and projects 8% revenue growth from its senior housing portfolio in 2025.

"There's an enormous amount of growth currently going on in the sector and expected to continue," Brown said.

Meanwhile, B2K is planning for more development on Long Island. The company recently agreed to buy 49 acres of vacant land at the Flowerfield Fairgrounds in St. James from Gyrodyne LLC, as Newsday previously reported.

B2K declined to comment on its plans, but Gyrodyne referenced an assisted living facility in its announcement.