Scott Kaufman, Principal

Scott Kaufman has over 12 years of experience working in the real estate industry.  His professional career has covered a wide spectrum of investment analysis of all property types: office, retail, mixed-use, multifamily, datacenter, hospitality, and over the last six plus years an emphasis in senior housing.

He graduated from the University of Texas in December 2007 with a BBA in Economics and a minor in Business.  Immediately after receiving his diploma, Kaufman went to work in the capital markets group at Behringer Harvard in Addison, TX.  At his time there, he witnessed firsthand a major shift and disruption in the global financial markets.  Kaufman spent an arduous three years at Behringer working directly with the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance. As a result of market conditions, he focused his time in the following areas: 

• Re-evaluating property level cash flow and calibrating funds’ earning projections;

• Monitoring funds’ secured and unsecured debt totaling approximately $5 billion;

• Managing and proposing hedging positions in order to protect against interest rate and foreign exchange risk; and

• Working within a small group to complete a significant number of loan originations, modifications, and restructurings totaling approximately $2 billion.

In January 2011, Kaufman chose to transition from working with a broad range of real estate investment types to focus on the senior housing and care sector.  He joined Greenbrier Development, a consulting firm exclusively focused in senior housing development located in Uptown Dallas, TX.  The firm’s services included strategic business planning, development management, marketing, and operational management to owners and operators of senior living communities all across the nation.  Greenbrier carved out a precise niche with a bulk of their clients being not-for-profit sponsors of continuing care retirement communities.  Kaufman spent his years there working in their planning and finance group, where he was involved in:

• Assembling business plans for various development scopes complete with market and financial analyses;

• Coordinating state regulatory compliance which include certificate of need or authority applications;

• Assisting clients thru the complicated financing process which would most often  involve a non-rated, tax-exempt public bond issuance; and

• Maintaining strong client service through periodic project updates to management, committees, and boards.

Armed with  the experience Kaufman gained during these 12 years, in July 2017 he chose to leverage his  expertise and industry relationships to launch  Monumental Capital.  MonCap’s mission is to create highly successful senior living communities for residents of significant means by investing in strategic, entrepreneurial opportunities.

Kaufman currently resides in Chicago, IL.  Before the relocation to the Midwest, he spent 25+ years in the Dallas metroplex.

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Michael Bertrand, Principal

Mr. Bertrand has a wealth of experience in the senior housing space and joined Monumental Capital in March 2019.

Mr. Bertrand is a senior housing market and development consultant who began his career as an MAI designated real estate appraiser. He has lived and worked in Louisiana, Florida and New England, and developed a specialty in the health care and senior housing space beginning in 1989. His experience included the completion of appraisals and market studies throughout the United States on hundreds of senior housing developments including long-term acute care hospitals (LTACH), skilled nursing facilities, assisted living/memory care communities, independent living/congregate care communities, as well as Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC’s). Clients included national and regional commercial banks, HUD, attorneys, as well as private investors.
 

In 2013, after 29 years in the appraisal business during which he was self-employed the majority of the time, Mr. Bertrand made a career change to focus more on providing market analysis and development consultation in the senior housing space. He ultimately became a partner in Memory Care Centers of America, LLC (MCCA) where his primary responsibilities were site identification and evaluation, internal market/feasibility analysis, financial modeling, and preparation of investment summary packages and other documents for lenders and investors. MCCA has successfully constructed and opened three 48-unit/50-bed memory care communities in Baton Rouge, LA, Simpsonville, SC (a suburb of Greenville), and Midlothian, VA (a suburb of Richmond). A fourth site is under contract in Yorktown, VA and is projected to be developed with a 170-unit IL/AL/MC community.

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Services

Monumental Capital is dedicated to strategically sourcing optimal senior housing investments in several forms:

• Development –

  • Start-up project with an investment time-frame that includes land control/acquisition, pre-construction activity, construction, and lease-up to stabilization;

  • Take control of a development which is struggling for any one or more reasons and assume the role of developer/owner at any one of the development stages.

• Re-positioning –

  • Existing/operating property that requires whole-sale changes in order to “re-position” itself to become more marketable - similar style investment to a Development.

• Under-performing Property Acquisition –

  • Non-cash-flowing, operating property that will sell below its potential  market value due to one or a combination of the following:

    • Off-market transaction,

    • Substantial deferred maintenance needs that owner is unwilling or unable to fund, and

  • Distressed owner and/or property because of foreclosure, short-sale, bankruptcy, default under its loan obligation(s), mismanagement, etc.

• Cash-flowing Property Acquisition –

  • Strategy is to identify potential properties to acquire that offer independent living, assisted living, and/or memory care and have stable operating cash flow on behalf of a 501c3 buyer

  • 501c3 buyer will differentiate itself from other suitors due to the following traits:

    • Cost of Capital: Buyer can issue tax-exempt bonds to fund the acquisition. Tax-exempt bonds are typically a lower cost of capital than REITs, private equity funds, and other private capital.

    • Property Tax Exemption: In most states, not-for-profit entities are not required to pay property taxes; therefore, communities realize significant, fixed cost savings.

    • Friendly Sponsor: Buyer is not exclusively tied to or affiliated with a manager, and as such the intent is for the current manager to be retained and in most cases given an incentivized contract extension. 

  • Due to this type of financing and sponsorship, cap rates tend to be more competitive than conventional transactions, especially for stabilized properties in secondary markets.

  • Current focus is for MonCap to identify senior living communities where the owners are looking to optimize and realize the value of their position. In concert, the current manager seeks to continue operating the communities long-term.  

At MonCap, we strive to be flexible in the way we operate.  The primary mission is clear; it will be to execute on specific, strategic investments.  However, we are nimble enough to seriously consider other opportunities.  We will caveat though that any product type other than senior housing would most likely require the engagement of a business partner.

In addition to investment flexibility, MonCap is prepared to provide consulting services to a multitude of real estate professionals.  Currently, MonCap’s initial principal, Scott Kaufman, served as an interim chief financial officer for Beacon Hill at Eastgate.  Beacon Hill is the pinnacle retirement community located in Grand Rapids, MI.  The community recently completed a phase two expansion which included 56 high-end entrance fee apartments, a new auditorium and café, and a replacement skilled nursing and rehab center.  Kaufman collaborated with management and the board to pursue future development, repositioning, and expansion projects.  His main goal was to craft a tactical plan to grow the organization’s mission beyond its campus.