With one acquisition, Montreal-headquartered Cogir Real Estate’s senior living subsidiary has vaulted into a position among the top-25 providers of seniors housing in the United States.

Cogir Senior Living has announced a “business combination” which will see it buy out the shareholders of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Cadence Living and assume control of its 35 properties in nine states. Cogir says the combined portfolio will include 60 properties and nearly 8,000 housing units.

“The two companies are so complimentary. As both were growing, they had challenges and skillsets that seemed to fill each other’s gaps perfectly,” said David Eskenazy, the CEO of Cogir Management USA, in the announcement this week.

“But more than that, as we both learned more about each other’s organizations, it became clear that philosophically we also had so much in common culturally, in the way we feel about our team members and what we believe our residents should experience daily.” 

Financial details of the transaction have not been released. 

Cogir and Cadence

Cogir Management USA is the U.S.-based subsidiary for management, development and investment of Cogir Real Estate. The U.S. division was launched in 2018 with the acquisition of 12 senior housing communities in Washington and California. Before this week's announcement, it has grown to 25 operating communities.

Cogir’s U.S. division is based in Sacramento.

Cadence was founded in in 2017 and has several additional communities coming on board through development in coming months to further expand the portfolio.  

“What started out as a casual conversation between Dave Eskenazy and I evolved into what we both felt was an ideal solution for both companies,” said Rob Leinbach, CEO of Cadence, in the announcement. “The more we talked about it and the more we thought about it, the better it fit. 

“We believe that the combined company will have the expertise, culture and foundation to be an industry leader in our space for years to come.”

Cadence co-founders Leinbach and Eric Gruber will remain with the company in senior management roles.

The combined division more than doubles Cogir Senior Living’s workforce to almost 3,800 employees.

“Rob and Eric have built an incredible organization and as Dave and I met many of the team members and visited communities together, it became clear to us that this was a terrific match.  We are thrilled to join forces with them,” said Mathieu Duguay, CEO of Cogir Real Estate, in the announcement.

“I’m very excited to welcome aboard our 2,000 new colleagues.”

About Cogir Real Estate

Incorporated in 1995, Cogir Real Estate employs close to 8,000. It manages over 310 properties throughout Canada and the United States representing five million square feet of commercial space and 39,400 housing units.

Included in the portfolio are more than 110 privately owned seniors’ residences.