Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors has launched a behavioral health advisory group.
Founded in 2013, the Chicago-based health care real estate brokerage aims to serve the growing real estate needs of the swiftly expanding behavioral health industry in the U.S.
“Blueprint’s existing pipeline, current client base, and proven analytics make us incredibly well positioned to make an immediate impact on a space that has historically faced barriers to entry,” Diana Naylor, Blueprint’s chief people officer, told BHB. “Blueprint and our behavioral healthcare team have established relationships with operators and capital within the behavioral healthcare space.”
Blueprint Healthcare also announced Monday Andrew Sfreddo’s appointment as the head of the new behavioral health advisory group. Behavioral health care real estate veteran Shane Harmon will serve as senior director at Blueprint.
Sfreddo and Harmon bring more than 40 years, combined, of health care real estate and private equity experience; more than 10 of those years have been dedicated to behavioral health care, the release states.
The firm is already up to speed with clients before Monday’s announcement. The behavioral health group has already closed multiple behavioral health care deals prior to the official launch date, Naylor said.
The firm offers real estate advisory services for seniors housing and care, medical offices, and capital markets.
The behavioral health group will focus on working in the drug and alcohol, high acuity mental health centers and hospitals, intellectual developmental disability and intermediate care facilities (IDD/ICF), supportive/transitional housing, eating disorders, autism and outpatient services, Naylor said.
Blueprint’s current clientele includes and will continue to target private equity, owner-operators, REITs, and behavioral providers throughout the sectors described above, according to Naylor.
Blueprint Healthcare sees the behavioral health industry as a robustly growing opportunity. The industry accounted for $90.5 billion of market value and is on track to reach $132.4 billion by 2027 — a 5.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to the release.
“Our unparalleled access to healthcare capital and facility inventory will allow providers to attract growth capital and mobilize new facilities without any of the hurdles seen before,” Harmon said in the release.
The company’s historic approach to serving health care clients has focused heavily on data and analytics. Its approach gives the company the chance to “make an immediate impact on a space that has historically faced barriers to entry,” Sfreddo said.
Blueprint Healthcare CEO Ben Firestone told BHB in previous reporting that the similarities to behavioral health and senior care make behavioral health a prime area for expansion for REITs seeking to diversify or convert struggling properties.
“I think that all the demand drivers are there,” Firestone said in an interview with BHB, pointing to stats that reflect the disparity between the need for mental health care and those that actually receive it.
