• Ziegler Handles Unique Operator Transition

    A high-end seniors housing community that caters to the Japanese-American population in the San Francisco, California, area completed a delicate operational transfer, with the help of Ziegler. Kokoro Assisted Living is located in the heart of San Francisco’s historic Japantown and is known for providing culturally sensitive care and an... Read More »
  • Brookdale’s Occupancy Keeps Improving

    It is a shame that Brookdale Senior Living did not do two years ago what it has been doing for the past nine months or so. Weighted average occupancy in August 2025 was 81.8%, up 70 basis points sequentially. This was the seventh month in a row the company posted an increase. Month-end occupancy in August was 83.2%, up 60 basis points... Read More »
  • Blueprint Closes Two Texas Portfolio Transactions

    During the NIC Fall conference in Austin, Blueprint announced a couple of portfolio transactions in Texas. First, Amy Sitzman and Giancarlo Riso facilitated the sale of five skilled nursing facilities located throughout the Texas Hill Country and Houston. All five facilities are within four hours of each other, offering scale and operational... Read More »
  • SLIB Handles Minnesota Receivership Sale

    A senior care campus in Pine Island, Minnesota, with some operational issues in the past has found a new owner thanks to Jake Anderson, Dan Geraghty and Ryan Saul of Senior Living Investment Brokerage. Set on 6.8 acres, the campus includes Pine Haven with 70 skilled nursing beds and Evergreen featuring 24 assisted living units. Pine Haven was... Read More »
  • PACS CFO Resigns

    PACS Group saw another potential setback to its public image, announcing that its CFO Derick Apt resigned on September 2 after it was determined that he had accepted a series of high-value items from individuals associated with a group of related entities with which PACS does business. The company was in the middle of its previously disclosed... Read More »
Diversified Healthcare Trust Still Has Problems

Diversified Healthcare Trust Still Has Problems

One thing that we still don’t understand about Diversified Healthcare Trust is why they seem to like making comparisons to 2019, whether year-to-date comparisons or, in the case of August 2023, comparing to August 2019. Are they trying to make shareholders feel bad, or are they trying to shame their providers, primarily Five Star/Aleris? Very, very few companies have come close to meeting 2019’s results, and when they do it is with census, not NOI or margins. For the month of August 2023, total SHOP occupancy was 79.3%, up 30 basis points from July and up 240 basis points since January. These increases seem similar to the industry at large. Net operating income declined slightly in August,... Read More »
A Community For The Future?

A Community For The Future?

Back in June, newly formed Senior Living Transformation Company (SLTC), in a joint venture with Omega Healthcare Investors, purchased a 114-unit senior living community in Brentwood, Tennessee for about $11 million, or $96,500 per unit. They consider that to be a distressed price for the roughly 25-year-old building, and they plan to invest a few million dollars into the property over the next several years. SLTC is led by Arnie Whitman, Chip Gabriel, Corey Bennett and Joelle Poe. But the acquisition is not the real story. The community, to be called Senior Living Transformation Center, will be an incubator of sorts to try to create an environment that will be the future of seniors... Read More »
Confluent & MorningStar Team Up on Development

Confluent & MorningStar Team Up on Development

Confluent Senior Living and MorningStar Senior Living entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the City of Tustin, California, to lead the development of MorningStar at Tustin Legacy. The Orange County community will feature 145 independent living, 60 assisted living and 28 memory care units. There will be several four- or five-story buildings, surrounded by 29 single-story independent living cottages. The community is being built on the former Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin, and is located within the 1,600-acre planned community of Tustin Legacy. Confluent and MorningStar expect to break ground on the project in the first half of 2025 through a public-private partnership... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: SNFs Get a Bad Grade

60 Seconds with Swett: SNFs Get a Bad Grade

It was unfortunate, but unsurprising, to see that in a recent Gallup poll, a plurality of those surveyed gave SNFs either a D or an F grade on overall quality of care. We say unsurprising not because we agree with that for the majority of facilities, although there are certainly those guilty of providing subpar care, but because of the general negative perception the public has on SNFs. Cases of bad care will always spread in the media and by word-of-mouth faster than the many instances of good care, and only 9% of respondents gave SNFs either B (good) or A (excellent) grades in the survey.  That is not good, but let’s face it, the skilled nursing business is also a thankless... Read More »
Two More Not-For-Profit Affiliations Announced

Two More Not-For-Profit Affiliations Announced

There were a couple of affiliations between not-for-profits made public this month, so far. First, Garden Spot Communities and Frederick Living, both located in southeastern Pennsylvania, announced that they will be affiliating. Legal proceedings have been initiated, with the affiliation expected to be finalized at the start of 2024, subject to government approval. Upon completion of the affiliation, Frederick Living will become a Garden Spot community.  Garden Spot was founded in 1990 and includes Garden Spot Village, a CCRC with 626 independent living units, 65 assisted living units, 40 memory care units and 73 skilled nursing beds. Garden Spot also includes Maple Farm, a 46-bed skilled... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: SNFs Get a Bad Grade

60 Seconds with Swett: Criticism Mounts for Minimum Staffing Mandate

It has been nearly two weeks since CMS released its proposed rule on Minimum Staffing Standards for SNFs, and the chorus of opposition to it continues from SNF stakeholders and also politicians. The Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Republican Congressman Jason Smith, said “this one-size-fits-all deal would ripple through local communities, siphoning staff away from other facilities in desperate need of personnel such as hospitals and hospice facilities, worsening already chronic staff shortages.” Across the aisle, Democrat Senator Jon Tester also commented that “This is just the latest example of Washington bureaucrats displaying how little they understand about the... Read More »