Sentara Healthcare Divesting Entire Skilled Nursing Portfolio
As Norfolk, Virginia-based hospital system Sentara Healthcare embarks on its planned merger with North Carolina-based Cone Health, it is first divesting its entire skilled nursing portfolio. The seven facilities are scattered throughout southern Virginia, with five surrounding the Norfolk/Virginia Beach market. The not-for-profit hospital chain started looking for buyers in the first quarter of 2020, before COVID-19 set in, but the process confirmed their decision to find an owner more focused on the skilled nursing market. That new owner will be Saber Healthcare Group, a private skilled nursing operator with over 125 facilities across the country. The... Read More »
National Health Investors Provides Occupancy and Rent Update
We appreciate any transparency from companies and how they are dealing with impact from COVID-19. As such, National Health Investors provided an update for its latest rent collection and occupancy results. The REIT collected 96.6% of contractual rent in September, which improved on the 95.3% success rate announced in August. In addition, 2.9% of rent was deferred, including 2.6% related to a previously disclosed deferral to Bickford Senior Living. The remaining balance reflected forecasted revenue that NHI had expected to receive from transitioned properties prior to the pandemic. Another tenant has also agreed to a deferral of approximately $560,000 in each in each the third and fourth... Read More »
The Great Re-Opening
It is fair to say that the economic shutdown, especially as it concerns senior care providers, could have been handled better (you think?). There was little consistency from state to state, and from one type of senior care provider to another. We spoke to some providers who never stopped admitting residents, and others where there was a total shut down of new admissions with no clarity on when that might change. Mayors argued with governors who argued with the White House. From the federal level to the local level, if one were grading the handling of the crisis, it would be an F. Who can forget New York Governor Cuomo forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients, issuing... Read More »
Recent Senior Care M&A Deals, Week Ending September 18, 2020
September may be slow, but check out our recent senior care M&A transactions! Long-Term Care AcquirerTargetPrice Not disclosedKing City Senior VillageN/A Novellus Living GroupCamlu Assisted LivingN/A Not disclosedSkilled nursing facility in NY$40.6 million Greenlake ManagementTri-Cities Retirement... Read More »
Average Assisted Living Occupancy Falls To New Low
The latest occupancy numbers from NIC are in and hit another low that the industry will be spending months and probably years to rebound from. Perhaps most notably, in the three months ending in August, the assisted living market fell below an average of 80% occupancy for the first time ever, to 79.5%. That is a 60-basis point drop from July’s trailing-three month level, which may have shocked us in the past, but after the nearly 170-basis point fall from June, it could be worse. To be fair, that is just across the 31 Primary Markets that NIC tracks for its quarterly results, but with COVID-19 affecting most localities nationwide and its economic ramifications even more widespread, we... Read More »
People on the Move
Don Kelly, formerly of CapitalSource Healthcare Finance but more recently a Senior Managing Director at MONTICELLOAM, has joined Locust Point Capital as Managing Director. He will be responsible for loan originations and structuring at the asset management firm, which focuses on direct lending to the lower middle market in seniors housing and care. Mr. Kelly has experience originating, structuring and underwriting approximately $5 billion in transactions across his career, which should help in his goal of expanding Locust Point’s market reach and product offerings in the lending market. Mr. Kelly also has operating company experience, formerly working as an Executive Vice President at... Read More »
Meridian Capital Group’s End of Summer Sprint
Meridian Capital Group’s seniors housing and healthcare team is sprinting to the end of summer, with over $160 million in transactions closed in the last two weeks alone. September has been noticeably slower than even previous months, so to get that amount of transaction volume across the finish line is impressive. Managing Directors Ari Adlerstein and Ari Dobkin, along with Senior Vice President Josh Simpson, first arranged a $47.8 million loan from a finance company, plus a $3 million A/R line to refinance two skilled nursing facilities with 328 total beds in New Jersey. The trio also secured a $30.2 million acquisition loan to fund the purchase of a CCRC in Florida with 120... Read More »
CiminoCare Adds California Community
A Stockton, California senior living community with a long history in the area has a new owner, and a new operator. Originally built in 1972, this property consists of 86 units of assisted living, a coffee shop, beauty salon, a parlor with a piano, restaurant-style dining and memorial rose garden. Novellus Living Group, a company focused on acquiring underperforming assisted living communities, renovating and repositioning them, was revealed as the new owner. Last year, Novellus acquired a 45-unit assisted living community in Modesto, California, for $4.5 million, or $100,000 per unit. The 30-year-old community sold at over an 8.5% cap rate, leaving some room for improvement... Read More »
The Labor Problem That Does Not Go Away
The pandemic should provide the reason, and time, for providers to re-think labor. When the weekly unemployment filings broke records last spring, there were some people who thought that with millions of workers newly unemployed, the labor crisis afflicting senior care might ease. As far as we have heard, it has not. An unintended consequence of this pandemic is that with census nationally dropping by 1,000 basis points, or more, staffing needs have dropped as well. Fewer people to feed and care for means not as much staff needed, at least in theory. So far, we have not heard of unemployed workers lining up to work in nursing homes or assisted living communities. Most likely the two... Read More »