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Photo courtesy of Sanders Trust.
Rance Sanders, left, and Bart Starr have earned the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from Healthcare Real Estate Insights.
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Photo courtesy of Sanders Trust.
Bart Starr and Rance Sanders were good friends as well as successful collaborators in business.
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Rendering courtesy of Sanders Trust.
A new inpatient rehabilitation hospital the Sanders Trust is developing in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Since 1989, the company has developed or acquired medical properties in 29 states.
The Sanders Trust in Birmingham is one of the nation’s leading healthcare real estate investment and development companies.
In December, the company announced that two of its longtime leaders had earned the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award from Healthcare Real Estate Insights.
Sanders Trust President and CEO Rance Sanders, a long-time Mountain Brook resident, and the late Bart Starr, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback and coach, were chosen for the honor due to their significant contributions to the development of the healthcare real estate industry since the late 1980s.
“On behalf of myself and my late friend and mentor, I am sincerely humbled and grateful to be given this award and recognition,” Sanders said in a company news release.
He also told Village Living that it’s “an honor to be recognized by your industry peers in any profession.”
The Sanders Trust develops and acquires medical office buildings, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, specialty hospitals and other healthcare facilities nationwide.
Since Sanders and Starr started the company in 1989, it has developed or acquired medical properties in 29 states.
Healthcare Real Estate Insights selects the Lifetime Achievement Award based on industry leadership, excellence in strategy and innovation, professional awards and significant contributions to the sector.
Sanders and Starr were nominated for the honor by Ben Ochs and James Schmid, Managing Partners of Anchor Health Properties, located in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Thanks to their leadership in the development of medical facilities, and particularly inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, the property type has become an institutionally recognized asset class, creating meaningful capital markets liquidity for the sector,” Schmid said in the news release.
“When Bart and I began, this was a small, fragmented industry with an overlooked asset class,” Sanders said. “During our 30-plus years, the industry has become widely appreciated by large institutional investors for the exposure to low-risk, recession-resistant properties.”
Sanders talked to Village Living recently about the formation of Sanders Trust; his long friendship and professional relationship with Starr, who died in 2019; the philosophy that guides him in running the company; the family life that helps sustain him; and some of the newest projects he has underway.
Sanders, who grew up in Bluff Park, graduated from the University of Alabama in 1980 with a degree in finance and earned his law degree at the university in 1983.
He was college roommates with Bart Starr Jr. and met his father while he was head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
Starr played for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 1950s and won five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls as Packers quarterback in the 1960s.
He then served as head coach at the legendary professional franchise from 1975-83.
After law school, Sanders remained close friends with Bart Starr Jr. and approached the older Starr in 1989 about creating a company to develop healthcare real estate properties nationwide.
“I perceived that this was an underappreciated property type and that the industry was very fragmented,” Sanders said. “There were virtually no national developers at that time.”
Their company was originally called Starr Sanders Properties and quickly opened regional offices in Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles, as well as San Antonio, Texas, and St. Petersburg, Florida.
Starr served as chairman and was responsible for establishing corporate policy and managing client relationships.
In 1997, the company made some structural changes and became The Sanders Trust, and Starr served as vice chairman.
“Bart and I were together side by side finding new opportunities and managing our rapid growth,” Sanders said.
The success of Sanders Trust is part of a huge transformation in its industry sector in recent decades, Sanders said.
“The healthcare real estate community has grown from our early pioneering days in the late ‘80s to now include thousands of professionals focused solely on the property type,” he told Village Living. “Institutional money, including large pension funds and sovereign funds, has poured into our business as healthcare has become noticed as a mainstream investment, especially with the graying of our population.”
The professional and personal relationship Sanders enjoyed with Starr was important to the younger man for a variety of reasons.
“From dear friend, mentor, childhood hero, to business partner, Bart taught me untold lessons on life, people, hard work and grace,” Sanders said.
When the two men traveled, Sanders said that Starr was constantly approached by fans and admirers, and that the legendary athlete always “cheerfully engaged” these people and would ask them their names and where they were from.
“On occasion he would offer to help a stranger with their bags or send them a personalized photo,” Sanders said. “He would always introduce me and anyone in our group.”
“From presidents, senators, governors, CEOs, movie stars, NFL Hall of Famers or regular fans, Bart treated everyone with kindness and respect,” Sanders said.
Sanders often hears Starr described as a gentleman, but his “character was even broader,” Sander said. “He genuinely cared about people and believed the best in them.”
The business partners and their families also enjoyed spending social time together.
“Bart, his lovely wife Cherry, and... Bart Jr. are an integral part of my life, and I have been enriched beyond words from our relationship,” Sanders said.
He has “many memories of personal trips together, Super Bowls, family celebrations, Sunday tennis together, golf, lively conversations, laughter and unconditional love and support through good times and bad,” Sanders said.
Sanders still feels Starr’s loss nearly two years after his death.
“I certainly miss Bart and — as with any loss of someone close to you — I am grateful for all the priceless memories and for the impact he had on me and my family,” he said.
He can also take solace in his family life.
Sanders has been married to his wife, Angie, for 40 years. They met in high school, and Angie also attended the University of Alabama.
They are residents of Mountain Brook Estates. “We have loved living in Mountain Brook for 36 years, since our college days,” Sanders said.
Their daughter, Casey, lives in Guatemala with her husband, Simeon Sandkuhl.
“They are doing mission work there to help educate orphaned children, and they are in the process of adopting two very lovely kids, who will be our first grandchildren,” Sanders said.
In the meantime, Sanders Trust continues to develop new projects, including new inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in St. Louis, San Antonio and Fort Smith, Arkansas.
In running his enterprise, Sanders said he follows a guiding philosophy that came from his father, who told him early in life to “do what you say you are going to do.”
“In business that means following through on commitments, especially when it is difficult to do so,” Sanders said.
He also learned a lesson from his father about how to treat the people he works with.
“My dad taught me to treat your employees — I call them colleagues — with respect, let them use their good judgement and compensate them well for their hard work,” he said.
Sanders also strives to remain upbeat and optimistic.
“I believe it is important to wake up each morning with a grateful heart and to be enthusiastic and cheerful about your life and work,” he said.
For more information, go to sanderstrust.com.
