- "[We] will not hand you a leaking, steaming bag of real estate and say, 'Here, you go, do what you want to do with it,'" says Welltower (HCN +1.6%) CEO Tom DeRosa at REITWeek, giving his take on HCP's (HCP +0.9%) planned spinoff of HCR ManorCare (or VTR's spin of CCP).
- If the properties are a headache, says DeRosa, it's a REIT manager's job to sell them and put the capital into better investments.
- HCP CEO Lauralee Martin counters that a sale wouldn't capture the full value of the assets, and she suggests a focused spin may have ways of dealing with the troubled tenant. "Anybody can sell garbage, but the real question is, what if it's worth more than that?"