Troubles Mount for Beleaguered Tenant-In-Common Industry
	Atria Sticks to Buy-and-Hold Strategy
	NREI Exclusive Research: Assisted Living to Fuel Seniors Housing Expansion, Survey Shows

The financial meltdown of Sunwest Management continues to send shock waves through the investor and seniors housing communities, and raises new questions about how tenant-in-common (TIC) offerings will be marketed and sold in the future.

At its peak, Sunwest was one of the largest assisted living owners and operators with over 275 properties in 37 states and an estimated annual revenue of $500 million. The Salem, Ore.-based company employed 12,000 people.

Despite a weak economy that continues to stall building sales, Atria Senior Living Group recently completed the purchase of a 168-unit assisted living building. Sterling Glen of Rye Brook in Rye Brook, N.Y., was purchased for $70 million from Forest City Enterprises. Atria had been the manager of the property.

"What's newsworthy is that we're sticking to a traditional real estate strategy," says John Moore, CEO at Atria. “We think this makes sense."

Get ready America for assisted living to be the engine of growth in the seniors housing business over the next three years. That’s the takeaway from a newly released survey of more than 250 industry professionals by National Real Estate Investor.

Among participants to the e-mail survey conducted in the fall of 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, 47% expect the assisted living segment to experience the most growth over the next three years, followed by independent living (43%), seniors apartments (37%), memory care facilities (27%) and continuing care retirement communities (24%).