• 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 »
Brookdale, HCR ManorCare and NIC

Brookdale, HCR ManorCare and NIC

Two major companies make decisions, one with a path forward and the other still unclear, and they will be the talk of Dallas at the NIC conference. As the senior care investing world descends on Dallas today for the Spring NIC conference, the giddy tone of the newcomers may be sobered by the recent events at Brookdale Senior Living and HCR ManorCare. Brookdale was the worse story, with its share price now down 80% from three years ago. The announcement last week that HCR ManorCare will submit a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of landlord Quality Care Properties was not a surprise, but just confirmed that the skilled nursing sector has a long struggle... Read More »
Brookdale, HCR ManorCare and NIC

Skilled Nursing Price Drops

When the average price per bed for skilled nursing facilities drops, the consistency in that drop is unparalleled. Here is something to ponder. We know that after a nice five-year run-up, the average price paid per bed in the skilled nursing market dropped by 18% last year, according to our new statistics. That was obviously a significant plunge, especially since the average had doubled in the previous five years. So, I decided to go back and see what happened in other years since 2000 when there was a drop. It turns out there were four years when there was a price drop of any significance. These included 2003, 2008, 2011 and 2017. What is weird is that the decline in each of those four... Read More »
Brookdale, HCR ManorCare and NIC

Bad Flu Season, But That’s Not The Story

It is a horrific flu season, but it may be unfairly blamed for current seniors housing woes. So, we have all been hearing about this horrible flu season, especially with the unusual number of children’s deaths, including in my home town. But what I fear is that it will be blamed for more than its fair share of census problems in the senior care market. Granted, when the worst flu season in nearly a decade hits, it is bound to impact senior care communities, where the residents are much more frail than the population as a whole. But for some reason, this flu season is impacting seniors housing communities, and companies, in very different ways. Believe it or not, some have seen little to no... Read More »
Brookdale, HCR ManorCare and NIC

Assisted Living Prices Hit Record

Despite multiple headwinds, assisted living prices hit record levels in 2017, while skilled nursing facility prices slumped for the first time in six years. There is an interesting phenomenon going on right now in the seniors housing and care acquisition market. Both the skilled nursing sector and the private pay seniors housing side of the business are facing multiple headwinds.  Yet, one side is seeing prices decline while the other keeps on going up, setting some new records on the way. Last year, after five straight years of rising prices, the average price per bed for skilled nursing facilities plunged by 18% to $81,350. Your first question might be, what took so long? The average cap... Read More »
Capital, Capital Everywhere

Capital, Capital Everywhere

After attending two conferences focusing on two different healthcare real estate sectors, it is all about capital. Having just returned from two different conferences in Florida, the one conclusion I can draw from both of them is that there still is way too much capital looking for yield. One, the Revista-sponsored medical real estate conference, was mostly focused on the medical office building market, which transacted more than $13 billion in investments last year. Who would have thought? The other was the American Seniors Housing Association’s annual meeting, which had record attendance with a lot of “deal talk” going on. One industry veteran told me he was only talking to architects... Read More »
Capital, Capital Everywhere

Elmcroft Senior Living Portfolio Completes Transition

Ventas has officially transitioned management of its Elmcroft portfolio to newly-formed Eclipse Senior Living. It is now official. The operations of the Elmcroft Senior Living portfolio of 76 properties, with the real estate owned by Ventas, has officially been transferred to Kai Hsiao’s new company, Eclipse Senior Living. Ventas has acquitted a 34% interest in Eclipse, with the remaining 64% being held by Eclipse management, which now includes Shamim Wu, Kai’s former colleague at Holiday Retirement Corporation. She recently did a 10-month stint as president and COO of Silverado. This will be an interesting test, since the Elmcroft portfolio was obviously having some financial problems... Read More »