• Strawberry Fields REIT’s 2025 Growth

    Strawberry Fields REIT reported its 2025 operating results, noting that it was the best year since its inception more than 10 year ago. The company posted significant increases in FFO and AFFO, and it completed more than $110 million in several new acquisitions. Its portfolio now includes 131 skilled nursing facilities, 10 assisted living... Read More »
  • Owner/Operator Exits SNF Sector

    An independent owner/operator exited the skilled nursing sector through its divestment of Sunrise Country Manor, which has 80 beds in Milford, Nebraska, and features a mix of private and semi-private units. It maintained an 83% occupancy rate at the time of the sale. A regional operator looking to expand its footprint in Nebraska acquired the... Read More »
  • Assisted Living Providers Join Forces 

    Majestic Residences recently expanded its footprint, adding 17 assisted living communities and six in active development, through its acquisition of Avendelle Senior Living. Avendelle will be integrated into the Majestic Residences platform, with Avendelle’s corporate team retained. The combined organization will operate under the Majestic... Read More »
  • Investor Secures Financing and Acquires Class-A Community

    BWE’s Seniors Housing Capital Markets Team sold and financed The Capstone at Station Camp, which sits in the Nashville, Tennessee MSA. Built in 2021, the Class-A assisted living and memory care community comprises 100 units in Gallatin. It is operated by TerraBella Senior Living.  BWE represented the seller, Hunt Midwest. The buyer was a... Read More »
  • Multiple SNFs Sell in Separate Transactions

    A large skilled nursing company sold its 181-bed skilled nursing facility to a private investment firm based in New York, exiting South Carolina in the process. The buyer had an existing skilled nursing footprint, and will be leasing this facility to a regional operator. The building was older, built in the 1980s, and was around 80% occupied at... Read More »
Doom and Gloom for SNFs?

Doom and Gloom for SNFs?

Skilled nursing facilities are closing at an alarming rate, so should we be worried about a shortage of beds in 10 years? There have been a lot of reports in the media recently about skilled nursing facilities closing down, just shutting their doors, and this is not just in rural areas. Low Medicaid rates have been blamed for this, and in many states, reimbursement levels have not even come close to keeping up with wage inflation, not to mention other costs. And this is 10 years into our economic recovery. Imagine what will happen during the next recession when state tax receipts decline. But there is something else going on as well. Skilled nursing occupancy rates have been trending down... Read More »
Five Star Finally Restructures With Landlord

Five Star Finally Restructures With Landlord

Five Star Senior Living and Seniors Housing Properties Trust announce a dramatic restructuring of their relationship, and all shareholders seem to lose, at least for now. Five months after Five Star Senior Living issued its “going concern” announcement, the financially troubled company finally came to an agreement with its landlord, Senior Housing Properties Trust, to restructure its leases. Looking at the terms, it appears that both companies had a gun to their heads, as there really do not appear to be any winners here. Five Star will have the leases convert to a management contract by the end of this year, with reduced rents in the meantime, which obviously gives them a cash flow break,... Read More »
Five Star Finally Restructures With Landlord

Strong M&A Activity Continues

As we head to the end of the first quarter, seniors housing and care M&A activity may reach 100 transactions for the fourth consecutive quarter. I should no longer be amazed by how strong the seniors housing and care M&A market remains, given all the headwinds we hear about all the time. From the public companies, Capital Senior Living’s stock took another tumble last week and Five Star Senior Living continues to struggle, but may soon get some rent relief. Nevertheless, buyers keep on snapping up senior living and skilled nursing properties. We are approaching the end of the first quarter, and that often means a fair amount of deal announcements the last week. Before we get those,... Read More »
Five Star Finally Restructures With Landlord

Genesis Occupancy Stabilizes, Finally

After several years of declining occupancy, operations seem to be stabilizing at the largest skilled nursing provider in the country. It has not been an easy past few years for Genesis Healthcare, or for the entire skilled nursing sector. But we always thought there would be some light at the end of the tunnel, and that nursing facilities would not go away, despite predictions of that for two or three decades. Genesis had seen its occupancy decline pretty steadily for several years. But in the 2018 fourth quarter, census actually increased by 90 basis points from the year-ago quarter, to 85.6% based on operating beds. Genesis also posted sequential and same-facility increases. The company... Read More »
Five Star Finally Restructures With Landlord

Capital Senior Living Jumps

After plunging to a low of $3.82 per share after fourth quarter earnings were released, shares of Capital Senior Living are showing some bounce. We are sure the market has noticed that the C-Suite has been buying. The price is now up 26% in less than a week. Timing is everything, and the CEO added to her holdings with the purchase of 10,000 shares at $3.954 on March 7 and the CFO 5,135 shares at $3.886 the next day. Even two directors added to their holdings at the same time. I guess they all thought enough was enough. Investors always want to see insiders making purchases, especially on the price downturn, which demonstrates confidence in future performance.   Activist investor Cove... Read More »
Five Star Finally Restructures With Landlord

The Closing of Rural Nursing Homes

The New York Times recently wrote about the problems rural nursing facilities are having, but didn’t report on my solution. If you happened to see the front-page article in the New York Times this past Monday on the shuttering of rural nursing homes, you might be surprised that I spent more than 20 minutes on the phone with the reporter talking about some good ideas. Instead, he chose a flippant quote which really had nothing to do with the story. I spent my time trying to educate him about the industry, and then explained my solution to the problem. My solution was to turn these facilities into the central healthcare provider for the county, or a tri-county area, if they are very... Read More »