Comfort Care Senior Living bought four of its assisted living/memory care communities from its landlord National Health Investors, and brought on Alex Florea, Michael Segal and Brooks Blackmon of Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors to advise them on the deal.
Centered around Detroit and Saginaw, Michigan, the portfolio consists of 236 total units of varying vintages. Two communities opened around 2013, and two opened more recently, with one property completed in 2019 and still in lease-up going into the pandemic. The communities exhibited strong performance trends pre-COVID, but faced occupancy and profitability declines during the pandemic which created friction within the lease structure. The two older communities also featured substantial Medicaid populations, which helps with occupancy but limits the NOI the communities can earn.
NHI had acquired the properties in multiple tranches and leased them back to Comfort Care over the years, but after reviewing a variety of options with the REIT, Comfort Care was able to negotiate the right to repurchase the communities. In its June 6 business update, NHI also revealed that the properties sold for gross proceeds of $40.0 million, or $170,000 per unit.
Comfort Care also engaged Blueprint to help explore new equity and debt partnerships, ultimately bringing on VIUM Capital to finance the deal. VIUM structured the loan to include a Facility A of $31.7 million funded by VIUM/MBI, and a B Piece of $4.7 million with Northwind Group. Ultimately, the financing totaled $36.45 million.
