Gardant Management Solutions has just taken over management of 25 assisted living communities in Illinois (22) and Ohio (3) with nearly 1,375 units. With this addition, Gardant’s size will increase by about 45%, something that will not be too easy to transition in the current operating environment.
The company will now operate more than 80 communities with nearly 7,200 units. Prior to this new management contract, Gardant’s average community size was 106 units. Now it is closer to 90 units since the new 25-community portfolio averages about 55 units each.
The Bourbonnais, Illinois-based company focuses on affordable assisted living, and many of these 25 communities were designed to serve low-income individuals and are approved for Medicaid waiver assisted living. The Illinois Supportive Living Program and waiver programs were passed in 1997 in Illinois, and the state has been a model for paying for and providing care in assisted living communities for lower-income individuals.
Gardant is now run by Julie Simpkins and Greg Echols, who were both promoted to co-presidents earlier this year, with founder Ron Burkett becoming chairman. Simpkins had been the COO and Echols the CFO.
Although it was not disclosed, we believe these 25 communities may have been part of the Pathway to Living portfolio that was recently taken over by Waterton, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm that announced it would be looking for new operators.
Affordable assisted living is going to be one of the fastest growing areas of seniors housing because the need is so great, especially as market-rate AL providers have been forced to have back-to-back rate increases of 8% to 10%, making their products even more unaffordable to the average customer. It looks like Gardant will be on the forefront of solving this problem, at least in the five states they operate in, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia.
