The unit is led by an eight-member executive committee that includes LeZotte; Michael Berne of New York City; Mark Gallagher in Vancouver; Gary Glatter and Richard Taylor in McLean, VA; Gary Hooper of Richmond, VA; Bryan Johnson of Phoenix; and Frank Nelson in Boston.

Several of the HPG's members, who have experience in business consulting, valuation, investment sales, capital markets, property management and brokerage, have worked on the operational side of the business. The group is comprised not only of existing C&W professionals, but also executives from seniors housing operators, acute care providers, health insurance companies, and the like.

"Healthcare real estate is more of a business function than anything else, so you need to understand how that operates in order to maximize real estate returns," LeZotte explains, adding that the group currently has about 80 members.

In addition to client requests, however, the future direction of the seniors housing and care market provides ample opportunities for the firm. The large, aging Baby Boom population coupled with longer life expectancies will make these services critical going forward, and the industry itself has room for significant growth.

"I've personally been in the seniors housing business since the early 1990s, and the industry is becoming very sophisticated. Wall Street is involved in it and there's a lot of foreign capital that comes into the sector," says LeZotte. "It used to be the operators really didn't understand the real estate underneath them--what type of equity they had and how they could use their real estate to achieve their operational goals. What I see in the business right now is senior housing is going to play a major role--there's a lot of development and a lot of need for nursing home care in this country. But overall, healthcare is a need-based system. It's going to continue to grow, and there's also a huge amount of specialization going on."

If C&W's business to date in the sector is any indication, the HPG will have its hands full. Over the past 12 months, the firm has raked in slightly more than $25 million in fees from business in the sector alone. Further, C&W's healthcare valuation team performed more than 1,200 valuation and consulting assignments in 2007 for more than $2 billion worth of properties.