Continuing its buying streak, National Health Investors added five new memory care communities and a new tenant relationship to its growing portfolio. The LaSalle Group developed these communities, located in Texas and Illinois with 223 total units, under the Autumn Leaves brand of stand-alone memory care communities. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that name, as Autumn Leaves seemed to open a new community every other week in 2014/2015, concentrating in the Texas and Illinois markets. The openings keep coming too. Just this month, the operator opened its first South Carolina community in Greenville. There are two more projects scheduled to open in that state in the next two years, and the operator, already with communities in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas, plans to enter Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri and Kansas by 2018.
With an eye towards that growth, NHI purchased those five Texas communities for $61.8 million, or $277,130 per unit, and leased them back to a new tenant, The LaSalle Group, under a 15-year term plus three renewal option periods. The lease has a 7% initial cash yield with annual fixed escalators. NHI funded the deal with a draw on its revolving credit facility. It’s been a busy year so far for the REIT, with four previous transactions in 2017 featuring eight seniors housing communities and one skilled nursing facility. NHI also entered into another new operating relationship with Ravn Senior Solutions in its purchase/leaseback of two assisted living/memory care communities in North Carolina back in February.
