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Diversified Healthcare Trust
Jennifer Francis leads Diversified Healthcare Trust, a REIT holding roughly $5B in senior-living and medical-office assets across 36 states.
Diversified Healthcare Trust
Diversified Healthcare Trust was formed in 1998 as Senior Housing Properties Trust, taking its current name in 2019 to reflect a broader mandate that includes medical office and life science properties. The trust is managed externally by The RMR Group, a publicly traded alternative asset manager, under a business management agreement. Jennifer Francis has served as president since early 2018 and chief executive officer since early 2023, with Richard Siedel as CFO. Its asset base splits between a senior housing operating portfolio, managed primarily by Five Star Senior Living under a combined master lease, and a medical office and life science portfolio leased to regional health systems and academic medical centers. The trust also holds wellness centers. Occupancy recovery in the senior housing segment and lease renewals in the medical office book have been central to operational discussions across recent quarters. Geographically, the bulk of the portfolio sits in the Sunbelt and the Midwest, with Texas, Florida, and California among its largest exposure states. The trust reported 367 properties as of its latest quarterly filing, split across roughly 200 senior living communities and over 100 medical office and life science assets. In January 2025, Diversified Healthcare Trust completed the sale of 108 triple-net leased senior living communities to Brookdale Senior Living for $610 million, a pivot that concentrates its holdings on managed communities and medical-related assets (per the firm, January 2025). That transaction reshaped its balance sheet and tenant concentration in a single stroke. The structural differentiator is the trust's reliance on an external manager, RMR Group, which also oversees several other publicly traded REITs. This creates a shared-services architecture where executive officers are RMR employees working under a master management contract. For Diversified Healthcare Trust, that means capital-allocation decisions run through a board with independent trustees, while property management and leasing leverage a centralized platform, a model that has drawn both engagement from activist investors and scrutiny during periods of lease restructuring with its major tenant-operators.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
1998
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Newton
Corporate office
Newton, MA, United States
Principals
Jennifer Francis
President and Chief Executive Officer
Richard Siedel
Chief Financial Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does the external management arrangement with RMR Group work?
Diversified Healthcare Trust has no corporate employees. Its officers are employees of The RMR Group, which provides property management, leasing, and administrative services under a master management agreement. The trust's board of trustees retains full authority over major investment and financing decisions, and the management fee is calculated as a percentage of the trust's historical cost of assets under management, subject to annual review by independent trustees.
What is the trust's tenant concentration after the Brookdale sale?
The January 2025 sale to Brookdale eliminated the trust's largest triple-net tenant relationship, which had represented a substantial portion of rental income. Post-transaction, Five Star Senior Living remains the primary operator for the managed senior living portfolio, while the medical office and life science tenant roster is diversified across hospital systems, academic medical centers, and physician groups, with no single tenant dominating the medical office book (per the firm's 2025 filings).
Which asset classes does Diversified Healthcare Trust own?
The trust operates across three healthcare real estate verticals: senior housing operating communities managed primarily by Five Star Senior Living; medical office buildings and life science facilities, most leased to regional health systems; and a smaller portfolio of wellness centers. The firm has been actively divesting triple-net leased senior housing while growing its managed senior housing and medical-oriented property base.
Does Diversified Healthcare Trust develop properties or acquire existing ones?
The trust primarily acquires existing stabilized properties and recapitalizes portfolios from regional operators. For its medical office and life science segment, it has historically executed off-market transactions with health systems seeking to monetize real estate, often entering long-term net leases at closing, a posture that keeps development risk low (per the firm's investor materials).
How does the trust resolve conflicts of interest with other RMR-managed REITs?
RMR manages several publicly traded REITs that sometimes target overlapping property types. Diversified Healthcare Trust's board, composed of a majority of independent trustees, must approve any overlapping investment opportunity. The trust's investment policy specifies that senior living, medical office, and wellness assets are its exclusive real estate mandate, and it does not compete with RMR-managed office or hospitality trusts for the same property types.
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