A unique consortium of companies involved in the seniors housing and long-term care industry have joined with the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industries, known as NIC, to donate $240,000 for the creation of the NIC Seniors Housing & Care Program at the Johns Hopkins Real Estate Institute of the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.

This will be the first-ever graduate program to focus on the business of seniors housing and care, which now is a multi-billion-dollar industry.

"The academic attention and study that the new NIC program will focus on this rapidly growing field is greatly needed--and long overdue," says Michael Anikeeff, director of the Real Estate Institute.

Anikeeff announced that Glenn Mueller has been appointed to head the new program, which will initiate student research projects in the field, publish a journal and ultimately offer an executive certificate and credits that in the future may be applied toward the Hopkins MBA or Master of Science in Real Estate degrees.

Prior to his appointment, Mueller was managing director of real estate research with Legg Mason Wood Walker in Baltimore. He has 23 years of experience in the real estate industry and holds a doctorate in real estate from Georgia State University.

"NIC has established itself as the premier research organization for the seniors housing and care industries," said Ralph Fessler, interim dean of SPSBE. "Our collaboration with NIC will help the industry expand its research capabilities and prepare its future leadership through our academic program."

"Seniors housing and care has emerged as a separate, major real estate category and will continue to grow at a phenomenal rate due to our aging society," said Robert G. Kramer, executive director of NIC, which is based in Annapolis. The new Hopkins Real Estate Institute program focusing on seniors housing and care will be the first university-based applied research program devoted exclusively to an industry that now has more than $100 billion in annual total revenues, Kramer said.

"The creation of the industry's first applied research program at a world-class university will allow NIC to significantly expand its research capability, furthering our mission of providing critical information necessary for business strategy and capital formation," said Anthony Mullen, chair of NIC's research committee.

Courses being developed for the new seniors housing and care program will be in areas such as management and marketing, finance and investment, development and quality of care. In addition, the program will involve an annual case study on the seniors housing and care sector, one or more applied research projects a year and an annual applied research publication, The Johns Hopkins/NIC Seniors Housing & Care Review, which will be launched in the fall of 2000.

Funding for the program is being secured through NIC and leading industry companies that have joined as founding sponsors. These include American Retirement Corporation, Capital Senior Living Corp., EdenCare, Formation Capital, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Greystone Communities, Heller Financial, Key Healthcare Finance, Marriott Senior Living Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Prudential Real Estate Investors, Retirement Housing Foundation and Senior Campus Living.

Formal announcement of the creation of the Johns Hopkins/NIC Seniors Housing & Care Program was made Oct. 7 in Washington at the NIC's ninth annual conference.