• 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 »

Fraud And Senior Care

Despite some high-profile allegations against senior executives for some type of financial wrong-doing, we are still thankful for all the good work done by the nation’s caregivers. What is it about caring for the elderly and financial fraud or other misdeeds? About once a week I read about a home health agency being charged with Medicare fraud. And then there is Medicaid fraud we hear about all too often with nursing facility owners, doctors and other providers. In our senior care industry, the founder of Sunwest Management, Jon Harder, was sentenced last week to 15 years in federal prison. Also last week, the SEC charged Chris Brogdon, the CEO of Global Healthcare REIT, with... Read More »

Senior Care Market Peak and Bottom

The private market valuation may have peaked, but the public market may have seen its low. As you know, I have been vocal about the acquisition market being at a peak for most of this year, at least when it comes to pricing. It just seems hard to imagine cap rates declining further with a rate hike looking like a reality….at least, according to consensus thinking. But the public markets are a different story. It has been a real roller coaster, but mostly down. But, and this is a big but, the downward spiral was so bad we just may have hit bottom. And November 13 is looking like the bottom, at least for now. On the provider side, both Kindred Healthcare and Genesis Health hit new lows on... Read More »

The Senior Care Pricing Disconnect

The public equity market for senior care operating companies and REITs is getting slammed, but the private investment market remains strong. The pricing disconnect continues. Public equity investors continue to slam the senior care operating companies and health care REITs. All one has to do is look at what has happened to Kindred Healthcare and Genesis Health this past week or two, when both companies dropped to new lows and have not yet recovered. Fears of reimbursement pressure, fears of OIG investigations, fears of staffing costs. All have some degree of merit, but it seems like an overreaction to me. Just look at the private market, where both acquisition pricing and demand remain... Read More »

CCRCs to Become LPCs?

Leading Age announced this week that they are proposing a new name for CCRCs: Life Plan Communities. What is it about all these name changes? First we have Health Care REIT becoming Welltower, followed by ALFA becoming Argentum. Now Leading Age, which already changed its name several years ago, has proposed that the industry adopt a new name for CCRCs, coming up with “Life Plan Communities.” A lot of people have had a desire to get away from the alphabet soup acronyms that are so common (ALFA, ASHA, AHCA, AAHSA), but these acronyms do make it easier at times. Will the new name become LPCs? That sounds a bit clinical to me, but who... Read More »

Immigration and Seniors Housing Labor Woes

Bringing in low-skill, low-wage immigrants for seniors housing may not be the answer. There have been calls to ease immigration in order to bring caregivers into the U.S. to fill low-skill jobs in seniors housing. As you know, this is a need that will be growing for the next 30 years or more, so the demand for labor is not the issue. But here’s the flip side of this. There are about 6 million workers in the U.S. with part-time jobs looking for full-time jobs. There are also, by one count, at least 600,000 people who have stopped looking for jobs. But that seems low to me. The point is, there are plenty of people who want full-time work in this country. And there are plenty of people who... Read More »

Slumping Ventas

Investors did not like what they heard about Ventas for the third quarter, despite an earnings beat. So, when we first heard that Ventas was announcing that third quarter earnings were going to exceed estimates, we thought, ho-hum, so what else is new, they always beat estimates. The press release was glowing about all the accomplishments during the quarter. They revised guidelines for the full year slightly upward. I didn’t get a chance to listen in live to the earnings call, but I did notice how the share price dropped by 5%. What, on an earnings beat? And then it dropped a little more. It was the revenue miss and concerns about growth that sent investors to the exits. Since then, there... Read More »