A subsidiary of a $35 billion-a-year company has purchased Harbor Crest at Cedar Canyon Estates and is negotiating to buy Northpointe Retirement Community.
MBK Senior Living, an offshoot of Mitsui & Co. Ltd., a Tokyo-based corporation with worldwide operations, recently purchased Harbor Crest from SL Start, who is also a partner in Northpointe.
Spokane County tax records show that the Irvine, Calif.-based MBK Senior Living paid $21.3 million for Harbor Crest, an upscale community that includes 160 units on 9.2 acres on the South Hill.
Terry Howard, president of MBK Senior Living, said the company hopes to close on the Northpointe property, in north Spokane, within 30 days.
“I think it really plays to MBK Senior Living’s strategy to have a portfolio of Class A senior living facilities on the West Coast,” he said.
The properties are the first Washington acquisitions for the company, which owns four upscale senior communities in California. MBK Senior Living owned by MBK Real Estate Ltd., the development arm of Mitsui & Co. Ltd. plans to expand its Washington presence to seven to 10 complexes, Howard said.
At Harbor Crest, the company plans to build about 10 cottages on two acres of undeveloped land. The units are in addition to 16 existing cottages that serve a growing market for seniors who live independently but desire a safe community and access to services, he said.
Some units come with “right to occupy” agreements that offer people the right to live in a cottage for as long as they like in exchange for a significant principal sum and a monthly service fee.
Howard said residents receive up to 90 percent of their up-front fee back when they choose to move.
Northpointe and Harbor Crest appealed to MBK Senior Living because they offer a range of care and cater to a mid- to upper-income customers.
Spokane also has received national recognition as being a safe and livable community, Howard said, adding that the quality of the hospitals and medical community factored in the decision to acquire the properties.
“There are just a lot of things about the area and region that we really like,” Howard said.
MBK Senior Living entered the senior housing market in 1986 and divested many of its senior communities when overbuilding caused problems in the industry, Howard said. The company re-entered the market in 2003 when occupancies improved and rates stabilized.
While the company is geared toward a private-pay system, Howard said residents at Northpointe who are currently on Medicaid can stay. “We will continue to serve them and provide the kind of quality care that MBK stands for.”
Source: Spokesman Review
Melodie Little
Staff writer
April 5, 2007