One newly opened transitional care facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico has already gone through multiple operator changes and now, with the help of Amy Sitzman and Giancarlo Riso of Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, an ownership change. Built in 2017, the state-of-the-art facility features 50 private units and is strategically located in a highly desirable medical corridor that includes three hospitals within a five-mile radius. A high-quality physical plant is no guarantee of operating success, however (just ask Mainstreet), and this facility struggled to make positive cash flow.
It had recently undergone an operator transition and was approaching 80% occupancy at the onset of the marketing process. That occupancy did not really translate to profitability. So, Blueprint positioned the deal as an opportunity to lease a new transitional care facility and to capitalize on expense management measures. That led a regional owner/operator to lease the facility in 2021 while structuring a purchase option as well. We learned that the regional operator was Idaho-based Cascadia Healthcare, which entered the state with this deal. After more than a year of operating the facility, Cascadia executed on the purchase option, for an undisclosed price.
