Sunwest may sell 7 bankrupt retirement homes

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Sunwest Management may have reached a deal to sell seven bankrupt retirement communities in North and South Carolina to a Boston company for 40 million dollars.
   
The Oregonian reported that Sunwest, based in Salem, had reached a tentative deal with Five Star Quality Care, a senior housing company in Boston.
   
But the Portland newspaper said the price is far short of the 56 million dollars currently owed to GE Business Financial Services Inc., Sunwest’s largest lender.
   
Dozens of individual investors who poured more than 11 million dollars into the retirement homes in the Carolinas are fighting the plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Nashville, Tennessee.
   
Most of Sunwest’s 280 retirement homes have not filed bankruptcy, though many are struggling with the economic downturn.
   
Sunwest is the fourth-largest provider of senior housing in the country.