AMC Delancey Returns to Its Roots

PHILADELPHIA-Investment and development firm AMC Delancey Group Inc. has spun off an affiliate company focused on the seniors housing sector. Delancey Senior Living will focus on developing, investing in and operating independent senior living communities within a 100-mile radius of AMC’s headquarters here.

AMC Delancey’s executive vice president and chief investment officer, Michael Wachs, has taken on the role of president and chief operating officer. He will head up the new company as well as manage AMC Delancey’s other investments and strategies.

For AMC Delancey, the move marks a return to its roots as a real estate operator, relates the executive. When the firm was first established by Kenneth P. Balin in 1992, says Wachs, it handled all components of a deal itself, including operations. “Around 2000 or 2001, we basically transitioned out of operations and focused on managing the assets and providing equity to operating partners,” he explains. “Over the past seven years, we’ve been partnering with operators on real estate deals from multifamily and industrial to retail and hospitality. We brought not just the dollars and capital, but also strategic planning and asset management. But because we’re real estate guys first as opposed to investment management or financial guys, over time, we decided it was time to go back to having a direct management component. When we looked at the future and how to continue to be successful going forward, we realized we wanted to add back operating capabilities.”