On the last day of the third quarter, Newmark’s team, which included Ryan Maconachy, Chad Lavender, Mills Poynor, Ben McElroy and Sarah Anderson, closed a couple of seniors housing deals featuring Class-A assets. First was a deal that we heard about in August, which was Sonida Senior Living’s purchase of eight seniors housing communities in the Southeast previously owned by Principal Senior Living Group.
These eight assisted living/memory care communities, operated under Principal’s Benton House brand, total 555 units, split between 383 assisted living and 172 memory care units, and average five years old, as opposed to the 19-years-old average for properties in the surrounding 10 miles of each asset. Five of the assets are in Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando and Daytona Beach MSAs), while three are in South Carolina (Hilton Head, Charleston and Florence MSAs). The FL properties are in Narcoossee, St. Johns, Port Orange, Oviedo and Oakleaf, while the SC communities are in Florence, Bluffton and West Ashley. Operations were solid, with the portfolio’s in-place occupancy around 83% and an average RevPOR of more than $6,000. Cap rates for the communities ranged from the low-7s to 7.75%.
Sonida paid $103 million, or $185,600 per unit, for the portfolio and expects a multi-year stabilization of NOI margin, which is already decent.
Next, Newmark closed the $21 million, or $230,800 per unit, sale of Felicita Vida, a 91-unit assisted living/memory care community in Escondido, California. Built in 2015, the community was 83% occupied and sold at an in-place cap rate of approximately 7.75%. Healthcare Trust Inc. sold the asset to Welltower.
