With $4.5B Senior Housing Portfolio, Bridge Investment Group Files for IPO

Bridge Investment Group is taking steps to go public.

The Salt Lake City-based real estate investment manager, whose portfolio includes senior housing, filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 22.

The firm’s senior housing portfolio totals 100 communities and 11,600 units across 30 states, with total senior housing assets under management of $4.5 billion, according to the filing. Bridge has operating relationships with several regional operators, as well as an in-house operator, Bridge Senior Living.

Bridge is offering up to $100 million in Class A stock, according to the S-1, and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BRDG.

The IPO announcement follows an expansion of Bridge’s investment strategy in recent months. In April, the firm launched an industrial net lease strategy, focusing on mission critical industrial net lease real estate scaled in prime U.S. growth markets.

Last week, the firm launched a new logistics real estate arm, Bridge Logistics Properties, seeking value-add opportunities in markets with favorable population and e-commerce growth trends, and constrained supply.

The filing reveals Bridge has $46 billion in real estate assets under its control as of March 31, across a range of asset classes including multifamily, affordable and workforce housing, and office, in addition to senior housing.

Bridge is rebuilding an acquisition pipeline for its senior housing segment that was tabled throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer Blake Peeper said during a May webinar hosted by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC).

As of November 2020, Bridge was in the process of raising subscriptions to its third senior housing fund, and reported $39 million in commitments to date, according to the S-1. Its previous fund, in 2017, received over $1 billion in commitments.

Part of the proceeds from Bridge’s second senior housing fund was used to acquire the assets and operations of Somerby Senior Living in 2019, which was rebranded as Bridge Senior Living. Having an in-house operator gives Bridge a competitive advantage, as the pandemic widened the gap between top-tier and struggling operators. In the future, capital providers and consumers will gravitate to top performers, Peeper told SHN in November 2020.

The firm is bullish on senior housing, believing the sector provides sizable long-term growth potential, ample opportunities for consolidation, and durable industry fundamentals, buttressed by favorable demographic trends, and expected increases in needs-driven moves to the sector, according to the S-1.

New leases across Bridge’s senior housing portfolio have already returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to the filing.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Securities, Citi, Wells Fargo Securities, and UBS Investment Bank are the joint bookrunners on the deal. Pricing terms were not disclosed.

Bridge did not return a request for comment from Senior Housing News.

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