Michael Dells firm buys luxe senior living giant with ritzy NYC towers for $1B

The golden years just landed a billionaire backer.BDT & MSD Partners, the investment firm that grew out of Michael Dell’s family office and still manages his clan’s money, is taking control of Sunrise Senior Living, the upscale operator behind two of Manhattan’s priciest addresses for the over-80 crowd.The company announced the sale Tuesday.The seller is a Canadian public pension fund, and Sunrise’s top brass are putting in their own cash alongside the new majority owner. Nobody disclosed a price, but the buyer pegs the deal north of $1 billion, sources told the Wall Street Journal.New Yorkers know the brand from Sunrise at East 56th, a 17-story, 151-unit tower at 139 E.

56th St. that opened in December 2021, and The Apsley, a 19-story building at 2330 Broadway between 84th and 85th streets.

When The Apsley debuted in 2023, rents started at $15,000 a month for a studio and $24,000 for a two-bedroom.Currently, rates start at $17,069 a month.

Life inside comes with lessons and recitals from Juilliard students, studio time with working artists and Broadway outings that include a peek behind the curtain, CEO Jack Callison Jr.told The Journal.The bet is simple.

The oldest boomers turn 80 this year, and plenty of them have the bank accounts to age in style.“The silver tsunami has been a topic since 1998,” Coburn Packard, who heads real estate equity at BDT & MSD, told The Journal.The difference now, he said, is that the long-predicted wave has finally shown up.The numbers back him up.

Occupancy across 31 big metro areas hit 90.4% in the third quarter, the best showing since COVID emptied out the industry, according to data firm NIC MAP.Assisted living sank under 74% in the pandemic’s depths and now sits at 89.1%.

NIC MAP also warns the country could come up more than 575,000 units short by 2030.Sunrise has 230-plus communities in the US and Canada, home to upward of 22,000 seniors.Assisted living goes for around $10,000 a month before extra ...