• Public REIT Divests to Owner/Operator

    Blueprint facilitated the sale of a Massachusetts skilled nursing facility on behalf of a public REIT in the senior care sector. The REIT determined that the facility was a strong candidate for sale due to its location. Plus, the former operator was switching focus to other assets in its mutual portfolio.  Purpose-built in 1982 with... Read More »
  • Development Company Acquires Through Membership Buyout

    A Missouri-based real estate developer engaged Blueprint to facilitate its membership buyout of a joint venture partner. Brooks Blackmon, Ben Firestone and Lauren Nagle handled the transaction. Four years ago, the firm was brought on to raise capital, ultimately sourcing an institutional capital partner to develop a private pay seniors housing... Read More »
  • 60 Seconds with Swett: Previewing Our Capital Markets Conversation

    We know that the capital markets have made the biggest impact on M&A activity and property valuations in the last several years, changing the size of possible deals, the makeup of the properties sold and the buyers that could actually buy. Now that the capital markets have substantially improved and are getting better, barring a sudden and... Read More »
  • Seller Exits Seniors Industry with Divestment to REIT

    A single-asset seniors housing owner is exiting the industry with the sale of their property in Murrieta, California. Built in 2016 and 2018, Renaissance Village Murrieta has 142 units of assisted living and memory care in three stories. It was operating just below 70% occupancy, so there is plenty of room for a new owner to improve performance... Read More »
  • Deal Closes Following Buyer Withdrawals

    After a long process that saw multiple buyers pull out from the deal, the sale of Sarah Neuman Skilled Nursing Facility in Mamaroneck, New York, has closed with the help of Mark Myers at Kiser Group. Owned by a religious not-for-profit organization, The New Jewish Home, the facility features 301 beds and was losing money. Myers had previously... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Conference

Thoughts On NIC Conference

New programming was just what the industry needed. Fresh from three days in San Diego attending the NIC “Spring” Conference, there were some noticeable changes, other than many new faces again. At past conferences, most of the sessions had to do with real estate, valuations, operations, competition and financing alternatives. While all important, this was the first NIC where there was an unusual amount of attention to things that most people either don’t want to hear about, or just plain don’t understand. I am speaking of Medicaid managed care, in both skilled nursing and assisted living, Medicare Advantage plans in assisted living, I-SNPs and value-based care, and, of course, the new PDPM... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Conference

The Secret Sauce To Success

Empowering your Executive Directors may be the way to go. I finally found out the secret sauce for success in the senior care market, at least for The Ensign Group. It is called empowerment. Simplistically, the home office does not interfere with the operations at each local community. Other than property, casualty and health insurance, the executive directors are pretty much free to do what they want with expenses. But, they have to succeed. Here’s the deal. A young ED is given full P&L responsibility, with certain benchmarks, of course. He or she is then part of a local team of a few other EDs, and they meet regularly and compare notes on costs and revenues. They can even decide on... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Conference

Average SNF And Seniors Housing Prices Hit Four-Year Low

The headwinds facing skilled nursing and assisted living have finally had their impact on acquisition values. We are obviously not in good times right now, but it is also not as bad as it sometimes appears. The mood is cautious for most, but hopeful for many, as occupancy and labor continue to be the problem issues facing the entire industry. What I don’t like, however, is when news reports come out saying that 50% of SNFs nationally lose money. What they fail to say is that this is after depreciation, amortization, interest and lease expense. Before these costs, the vast majority of nursing facilities are still making money, just not as much as in the past. It looks like 2018 was finally... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Conference

Thank Wayne Kaplan

Offering free meals to federal workers without a paycheck is the way to go. For all of you who have descended on Los Angeles for the annual ASHA meeting this week, please thank Wayne Kaplan of Premier Senior Living for their generosity, and smarts. At the company’s 23 assisted living and memory care communities located in six states, they have been offering federal workers going without a paycheck free meals at their communities. It can be breakfast, lunch and dinner. While we don’t know how many people took them up on this offer, think of the goodwill it will generate across their locations, especially when the word gets out. We are making the assumption, of course, that the food is good.... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Conference

Seniors Housing & Care Acquisition Stats

The Seniors Housing Acquisition and Investment Report, and the Skilled Nursing Acquisition and Investment Report will be coming soon with better data then ever before. We are closing out the 2018 data for our skilled nursing and seniors housing acquisition market statistics, which will be presented in two separate reports this year, to be released in March. They will be called the Seniors Housing Acquisition and Investment Report, and the Skilled Nursing Acquisition and Investment Report. Let’s just say that with a record number of publicly announced transactions last year, plus the private ones we receive, the quality of the data for this year’s reports is the best it has ever been. It... Read More »
Thoughts On NIC Conference

The Good and the Bad of NIC’s Latest Occupancy Numbers

Fourth quarter occupancy may have been flat, but it is sure to decline in the early part of this year. We need to find new ways to deal with it. What great timing, with NIC’s occupancy and construction numbers just released for the fourth quarter, given our webinar tomorrow. Here’s the good news. Occupancy was stable in the fourth quarter, and new construction as a share of existing inventory, while still high at 6.0%, is 130 basis points off its recent high in the fourth quarter of 2017. And, at long last we seem to be reaching equilibrium between new supply and demand. The bad news is that assisted living occupancy is still low at 85.4%, and while unchanged from the third quarter, was... Read More »