Sienna Senior Living has agreed to pay $170.7 million, or $560,000 a suite, for a 305-suite Ottawa retirement residence that is nearly full, a price that shows just how much investors will pay for the right seniors housing asset in the capital right now. Five days later, on the other side of the city, a very different kind of deal closed: a 263-suite retirement campus that spent nearly two years in court-supervised receivership sold to a new operator for an undisclosed price, with one of its lenders expected to recover less than it is owed.
Together, the two transactions, confirmed through company statements, court-appointed receivers’ filings and Ottawa Business Journal reporting, show a seniors housing market that is anything but uniform. Buyers are paying record per-suite prices for stabilized, newly built properties, while distressed assets built during the same construction boom are being sold at a discount out of insolvency.
Illustrative photo of a retirement residence exterior. This is not a photo of Stonemont on the Park or the Ravines. (Photo: Far Chinberdiev/Unsplash)
Toronto-based Sienna Senior Living Corp. said Sept. 17 it has entered a purchase agreement for Stonemont on the Park, a 305-suite retirement residence in Ottawa’s east end that opened in 2024 and is about 99 per cent occupied. The gross purchase price is $170.7 million, plus an additional $10 million the seller can earn if the property clears certain financial targets, Sienna said in a release distributed through GlobeNewswire. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, financed with cash on hand and credit facilities, and is subject to regulatory and customary closing conditions.
“With the addition of Stonemont, we are further expanding Sienna’s retirement platform in a key market,” Sienna president and chief executive Nitin Jain said in the release. Jain pointed to more than 50,000 people on Ontario’s waitlist for a long-term care bed as evidence of underlying demand, and credited a recent change to the province’s construction funding model for making new long-term care redevelopment “financially feasible” for Sienna to pursue.
The Rideau Canal in Ottawa, where both retirement residences involved in this week’s deals are located. (Photo: Dylan Phair/Unsplash)
Across town, in the Citiplace neighbourhood of Nepean, Verve Senior Living closed its purchase of a two-building campus known as the Ravines on Sept. 22, the Toronto-based operator said in its own release. The 125-suite Ravines Retirement Residence and the 138-suite Ravines Senior Suites, at 626 and 636 Prado Private, had been under insolvency protection since their developer, Ashcroft Homes, filed for creditor protection in December 2024 after rising interest rates and soft initial occupancy left the project unable to cover its debts, according to reporting by Storeys and Connect CRE Canada, which cited court-appointed receivers BDO and KSV Restructuring.
At the time of the sale, the retirement residence building was about 73 per cent occupied at an average monthly rent of $7,257, while the senior suites building sat at 63 per cent occupancy with average rent of $5,554, Storeys reported, citing receivership filings. Central 1 Credit Union, which had lent $42.2 million against the retirement residence building, is expected to recover less than it is owed once the sale closes, while two other lenders owed a combined $43.4 million against the second building are expected to be repaid in full, the same reporting said. Newmark’s seniors housing group ran the court-supervised marketing process, and the purchase price itself was not disclosed, remaining sealed in court filings.
Illustrative photo of a dining room in a residential setting; not a photo of either property. (Photo: Point3D Commercial Imaging Ltd./Unsplash)
Verve, which now operates 25 residences across four provinces, said it will invest $20 million in the property over the next two years, covering renovated suites, refreshed care floors and updated dining and lobby areas, while keeping existing staff on site. “We see an outstanding community with great people, a strong reputation, and tremendous potential,” Verve president Scott Quinney said in the release.
Illustrative photo of a living room interior; not a photo of either property. (Photo: Spacejoy/Unsplash)
Neither Stonemont nor the Ravines is a property listed for sale to the public, so no listing gallery exists for either. The photos accompanying this story are illustrative stock photography and do not show either building.
The gap between the two prices illustrates a split researchers have flagged elsewhere in Canadian seniors housing: newer buildings that opened into a soft leasing market during a stretch of high interest rates have struggled to stabilize fast enough to cover construction-era debt, even as demand for beds keeps climbing and well-occupied properties draw premium bids. Both buyers are betting on the same underlying trend, an aging population that outstrips the available supply of beds, just at very different points in each property’s life cycle.
