• 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 »

The Growing Memory Care Market

Memory care is a growing need, and it has been the focus of a lot of new development. But it can be risky as well. Last week I talked about the first quarter occupancy and new construction stats, but today let’s focus on memory care. This has been an area of heightened investment interest because there are fewer memory care units in the market then AL and IL and, unfortunately, the need for memory care will only increase, and may increase at a faster pace than traditional assisted living. Some providers are even seeing an increase in the “young” population with memory care or other dementia-related issues, and I am talking about under 70 years old and not just retired NFL players. It is a... Read More »

Occupancy, Rates And Discounting In Seniors Housing

The recent NIC MAP data on occupancy, development and rate growth can be interpreted in many ways. So, what are we really to make of the NIC MAP data for the first quarter? Most of the data was viewed positively, despite a smallish decline in occupancy from last year’s fourth quarter. Absorption levels have been increasing, according to the data, and construction starts as a percent of existing supply declined from both the fourth quarter and the year-ago quarter. Does this mean that the much-feared over-building threat has dissipated? Hardly, as one quarter’s worth of data does not present a strong trend, and it is possible the small decline in starts was related to the chaos in the... Read More »

The Future of the 40-Year Old SNF

Nearly half of the skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. are 40 years old and older, and that is going to be a big problem? Have you ever wondered what is going to happen to all those skilled nursing facilities that were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and look it? Some are even older, although I hope most of them have had some sort of renovation over the years. These “old” nursing facilities are going to struggle over the next 10 years, if they are not already struggling today. They are usually small from a square feet per bed basis with a high Medicaid census. Many would have difficulty taking care of high acuity subacute patients. And I suspect most would not be sought after in any kind... Read More »

Assisted Living “Lite” Or Not

Whether you think you operate your assisted living community under a hospitality model or a healthcare model, there will only be more health care in the future. Recently, there have been some stories in the senior care media about the hospitality model for assisted living compared with the healthcare model. That was a big debate in the late 1990s when 20 assisted living companies went public as some companies didn’t want to be labeled as “healthcare” companies, with all the regulatory and reimbursement baggage that comes with it. Some preferred to call the hospitality model “assisted living lite.” In fact, the founder of Sunrise Senior Living was famously quoted as saying Sunrise did not... Read More »

Time To Move Forward

Activist shareholders can distract management from focusing on growth and cash flow, and maybe Brookdale and Capital Senior Living can move forward in peace. Don’t you just hate distractions. Andy Smith at Brookdale has had to deal with a bunch of activist shareholders for the past year while trying to right his ship. Larry Cohen of Capital Senior Living had his activist several years ago, who then went on his board and became aligned with management’s goals. In round two this year, he has come to agreement with another one, Lucas Advisors, known by some as the trust fund baby hedge fund. Capital has agreed to appoint a new independent Board member, consulting with Lucas on the... Read More »

Senior Care Investment Rebound

After a dismal first six weeks this year, stocks have rebounded in a big way. Many of you know that I have been talking and writing about the change in investor sentiment that was taking place from late last year and into 2016. It really culminated in mid-February when pretty much all the senior care provider stocks and REITs collapsed to their new lows. It was all rather depressing, but also counterintuitive because things were not all that bad at the time. Sure, there was some negative news, but the overreaction in the market was just plain astounding. Many people thought it represented a major buying opportunity, even though they were still nervous and wondered if we were really at the... Read More »