Ventas comments on master lease with Brookdale Senior Living

Ventas (VTR) announced that Brookdale Senior Living (BKD) did not exercise its right to extend the term of the master lease between the companies for a renewal term commencing January 1, 2026. Thus, Brookdale no longer has a right to extend the lease term for any assets currently covered by the Master Lease. The company intends to deploy its Ventas OITM platform and playbook to convert some or all of the senior housing communities currently covered by the master lease to the company’s senior housing operating portfolio, or SHOP, structure and engage proven market-focused operators to manage the communities. The company said, “Ventas’s plans are intended to maximize the performance and value of these communities and further expand the Company’s SHOP footprint to increase Ventas’s future growth rate amid an unprecedented multiyear growth opportunity due to secular demand from a large and growing aging population. The Company may also choose to sell, lease or take other actions respecting a portion of the currently leased portfolio based on its Right Market, Right Asset, Right OperatorTM approach. Brookdale remains obligated to pay full contractual rent under the Master Lease through the current lease term, which ends December 31, 2025. There are 120 senior housing communities currently covered by the Master Lease. Annual cash rent under the Master Lease in 2025 is $113.6 million.”