Senior Star and Health Care REIT. A partnership focused on success.

Senior Star is a family-owned and -operated company and one of the premier seniors housing operators in the Midwest. The portfolio includes 2,019 total units. Three-quarters of the units are independent living, while the remainder are assisted living and memory care. The communities are located in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio and Oklahoma.

Senior Star Co-Founders and Managing Principals William and Robert Thomas are twin brothers and long-time senior living entrepreneurs. Both work to foster a family-like environment in all Senior Star communities. This life-enriching model of care and commitment to customer service makes Senior Star the community of choice.

“We have known Bill and Bob for a long time and talked over the years about possible ways of working together,” says Mercedes Kerr, Health Care REIT’s Senior Vice President – Marketing. “During one of these meetings, George Chapman, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Health Care REIT, invited Bill and Bob to participate with us in some new properties. Through this collaboration ... we developed creative solutions and tailored a growth platform for the business.”

When discussions began, William and Robert Thomas were not seeking a capital partnership. Yet, after Health Care REIT assessed and gained an understanding of Senior Star’s future growth plans, a creative financing solution was developed. The history of trust between the two companies was the perfect foundation for a successful partnership.

The Senior Star partnership opportunity arose because of the history, relationship and trust between the two companies. It progressed from a concept sketched on a pad of paper to the creation of a long-term partnership for growth and expansion because of the creative capital solutions and company capabilities offered by Health Care REIT. Together, both companies can focus on what they do best – creating value. “The opportunity for the future is so significant in what we can learn from each other, how we can extend each other, how we build toward excellence; the fit is really a remarkable new chapter going forward,” says William Thomas.

“We recognized our values were very similar. Health Care REIT was very centered on the end customer – not only the senior client, but also company employees and people being served in the industry.”

Robert Thomas,
Co-Founder and Managing Principal,
Senior Star