


Blueprint’s Recent Activity
We have said it before: the senior care M&A market has been an enigma. The difficult capital markets environment combined with operational distress in the industry has reduced buyer demand, increased lender scrutiny of deals and lowered values to a level that discourages potential sellers from entering the market. Headaches involving sourcing debt, soaring insurance costs and skittish (some would say fickle) buyers/lenders have made each transaction that much more difficult to complete. Despite all of this, M&A activity is, at first glance, still at historically high levels. In the third quarter of 2023, 115 deals were publicly announced. That is down from the 140 transactions made... Read More »
60 Seconds with Monroe: Finding A Solution For LTC Funding
My friend Stephen Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, has been a consistent and persistent advocate for reforming the Medicaid system and getting Americans out of the Medicaid-dependency mindset. He just published, with the Paragon Health Institute, the follow-on to his paper “Long-Term Care: The Problem.” Available now is “Long-Term Care: The Solution.” While I was hoping for something completely new and creative, I can’t disagree with his recommendations, which include 1) stop the ability to purchase Medicaid-exempt assets, 2) eliminate the home equity exemption, 3) ban Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, 4) disallow Medicaid compliant annuities, and 5) increase the... Read More »
Brookdale Occupancy Continues to Grow
As we have mentioned time and again, the seniors housing industry needs Brookdale Senior Living to succeed. While census continues to increase, the pace needs to increase as well before we head into the flu season this winter, which usually sees a drop in census. Many providers were spared this seasonal decline in census last year, as the industry’s recovery was stronger than the flu season. But Brookdale lost 90 basis points of census in the first quarter this year. September’s weighted average occupancy increased 60 basis points from August, to 78.2%. Month-end occupancy in September increased by 40 basis points from August, to 79.7%, inching closer to that psychological 80% level. But... Read More »
Breathing Room Gets Bigger for Sonida Senior Living
Three months ago, Sonida Senior Living announced a comprehensive loan forbearance agreement with Fannie Mae covering 37 mortgaged communities. Part two occurred last week, which was the signing of loan modifications for these loans. It appears that the terms from three months ago remained in place. All maturities under the 37 loans have been extended to December 2026 or later. Principal payments have been deferred for three years or waived until maturity, resulting in $33 million in deferred payments. A near-term interest rate reduction for all 37 loans will result in $6.1 million in cash interest rate savings from June 2023 to May 2024. As part of the agreement, Sonida paid down $5... Read More »