• National Health Investors in the Mood to SHOP

    National Health Investors posted another good quarter and, like many other companies, increased their earnings guidance for the rest of the year based on current performance as well as expected new investments. The REIT’s small SHOP portfolio posted a 29.4% year-over-year increase in NOI and will be transitioning six communities to the portfolio... Read More »
  • KIRCO Refinances Class-A Community

    Berkadia announced the refinancing of Monark Grove Madison, a Class-A, 132-unit, independent living and memory care community developed and owned by Michigan-based KIRCO. Steven Muth, Austin Sacco, Garrett Sacco and Alec Rosenfeld of Berkadia Seniors Housing & Healthcare secured a loan through a national bank. The deal closed on July 15 after... Read More »
  • BMO Closes Facility for MCAP Acquisition

    BMO’s Healthcare Real Estate Finance group closed a large facility to facilitate the acquisition and renovation of nine seniors housing communities in Virginia. Totaling more than 780 beds, the portfolio will continue to be managed by Commonwealth Senior Living on behalf of the new owner, Municipal Capital Appreciation Partners (MCAP).  This was... Read More »
  • Stellar Turns to Acquisitions with New JV

    Stellar Senior Living announced the close of its first joint venture with $20 million in capital commitments. Stellar’s partner is a large private equity firm, and the joint venture will provide funding to acquire 10 to 15 seniors housing communities over its term. The first acquisition under this new venture is The Grand at Broomfield Assisted... Read More »
  • Florida Not-For-Profit Secures Financing

    Ziegler announced the closing of Oak Hammock at the University of Florida’s $93.5 million Series 2025 bonds issued through the Alachua County Health Facilities Authority. This is the third transaction Ziegler has completed for Oak Hammock, a Florida not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates a CCRC in Gainesville, Florida.  The... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: The Fight between Brookdale and Ortelius

60 Seconds with Swett: The Fight between Brookdale and Ortelius

It has been a bit amusing to see both Brookdale Senior Living and Ortelius Advisors claim victory with Institutional Shareholder Services’ report on the upcoming July 11th stockholders vote on the new slate of directors for the Board. For Ortelius, ISS recommended voting for Steven Vick and Lori Wittman, two of the six nominees that Ortelius put forth in March, while also acknowledging the benefit of Ortelius’s efforts on initiating needed change at Brookdale. Meanwhile, Brookdale rejoiced at ISS effectively recommending that shareholders’ not hand control of the Board to Ortelius by only supporting two of the six nominees and pointing out Ortelius’s lack of details in the turnaround plan... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: The Fight between Brookdale and Ortelius

60 Seconds with Swett: HUD’s Express Lane and M&A

We’re not used to sensible reforms coming out of Washington, D.C., but HUD has just come out with a new “Express Lane” for the Section 232 Residential Care Facilities program. Obviously, we don’t want any facilities or borrowers that shouldn’t receive a loan to slip through the cracks, not that you can always predict a future disaster. But so many HUD loan processes sought by repeat-borrowers are a foregone conclusion, and we think with the guardrails in place, this is a great idea. Those guardrails apply to the loan terms, the facility quality and the borrower itself. Also, all of the criteria have to be met to qualify. Some of the highlights include a maximum 70% loan-to-value, minimum... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: The Fight between Brookdale and Ortelius

60 Seconds with Swett: May M&A Activity Slumps

Earlier this year, M&A activity was continuing at a record pace after 2024 finished with 714 deals for the year, an annual record by far. February, March and April all exceeded 60 transactions each, peaking in March with 69 deals and average 780 annualized deals across that three-month period. But we were a little surprised when dealmaking plummeted in May to 46 transactions, the lowest monthly total since February 2024. Looking at only U.S. deals, the decline has been steadier, going from 57 deals in March to 46 in April to 35 in May, the lowest domestic monthly total since September 2023. Dealmaking is always cyclical, with waves of listings and closings ebbing and flowing. And we’ve... Read More »
60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: For Sale

60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: For Sale

From the title of this, I am sure you thought I was going to talk about some seniors housing community or company for sale. But no, unfortunately, I am talking about the Oval Office being for sale, and it is disgusting. Although he is not the only President to pardon criminals and tax cheats, there seems to be more of a pattern with Donald J. Trump, as it pertains to our industry. It started in his first term when he commuted the 15-year sentence of Jon Harder, the founder and CEO of Sunwest Management, who in the 1990s and 2000s built up a huge portfolio of seniors housing communities, overpaying for most of them along the way.  But it all came crumbling down when his lenders decided... Read More »
60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: For Sale

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Brookdale Senior Living and SWAT

Brookdale Senior Living announced it had recently formed SWAT teams to deal with its lowest-occupancy buildings to try to get them over the 80% hump, and there are a lot of them. Since then, the term SWAT team has been appearing more and more with other providers.  SWAT is a scary term, and stands for Special Weapons and Tactics, and in law enforcement is used to deal with barricaded persons, active shooting scenes and high-risk search warrants. Not exactly something we want to be associated with trying to get customers into senior living. But I understand the intent. The other frequently used term is the “silver tsunami” about to hit us. Again, a tsunami is extremely destructive,... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: The Fight between Brookdale and Ortelius

60 Seconds with Swett: The Republican Budget and Medicaid Cuts

There will be significant political interest in what happens to Medicaid funding as Republicans work to pass a budget and tax bill with their very slim majority. Touching entitlements remains politically risky, and the party is divided on whether any Medicaid cuts would be acceptable heading into an election cycle. At this stage, per-capita caps on federal Medicaid payments to states do not appear to be under serious consideration. However, even without direct federal cuts, rulemaking changes could materially affect Medicaid-dependent providers. CMS has issued a proposed rule that aims to close what it describes as a Medicaid “tax loophole” that some states have used to inflate federal... Read More »