• 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 »
60 Seconds with Swett: The Long, Slow Brookdale Recovery

60 Seconds with Swett: The Long, Slow Brookdale Recovery

Brookdale Senior Living came out with its Q2 earnings, and the occupancy results revealed just how prolonged the post-pandemic recovery has been for seniors housing and care, making many early predictions of a swift return to pre-pandemic census sound more and more ridiculous in hindsight. The good news is that Brookdale reported its highest month-end occupancy since before the pandemic, at 78.5%, up 30 basis points from the previous month and up just 10 basis points from the previous high recorded in September of last year. The bad news is the fact that Brookdale has taken this long to get back to last fall’s level of occupancy. To us, that is not “progress” in the larger goal of getting... Read More »
Ventas SHOP Improves

Ventas SHOP Improves

Ventas (NYSE: VTR) is the latest REIT to report second quarter earnings, and while performance is improving, it is not improving fast enough for some investors. Its seniors housing portfolio, while still showing improvements, lagged behind Welltower’s, and investors sent the shares down by 6.5% in early trading. Total seniors housing occupancy in its SHOP portfolio of 568 communities decreased by 30 basis points in the quarter, year over year, and declined by 20 basis points sequentially. On a same-community basis, occupancy increased by a small 10 basis points year over year, but declined by 20 basis points sequentially. Yes, the first and second quarters are usually not good for... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: The Long, Slow Brookdale Recovery

60 Seconds with Swett: Two Cheers for the SNF Rate Bump

CMS came out with its final skilled nursing facility payment rates for fiscal year 2024, and the sector will benefit from a 4.0% net increase, or approximately $1.4 billion, in Medicare Part A payments. That is up from the initially proposed 3.7% net increase and reflects a 6.4% net market basket update to the payment rates. There were a couple of negative adjustments that brought the net rate increase down, including a negative 2.3% decrease as a result of the second phase of the PDPM parity adjustment recalibration. That reduction came as no surprise, as PDPM was meant to be budget neutral and has been a net-benefit to many SNFs since the 2019 implementation. But to the SNF advocates... Read More »
Fairview/Sanford Health Merger Called Off

Fairview/Sanford Health Merger Called Off

The merger between Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health was called off after Sanford announced on July 27 that it was discontinuing the process. The transaction would have led to the combination of two of the largest not-for-profit senior living operators in the country, Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society (whose parent organization is Sanford) and Ebenezer (which is a subsidiary of Fairview). Sanford owns more than 200 Good Samaritan locations, and Minnesota-based Fairview has more than 90 senior living locations managed by Ebenezer. The combined entity would have owned 58 hospitals, as well.  Announced in late 2022, the merger was expected to be completed in March 2023,... Read More »
Newmark Hires Capital Markets Veteran

Newmark Hires Capital Markets Veteran

Nearly two months after Newmark lost David Fasano and Ross Sanders to Berkadia, the firm is building its team with the hire of capital markets debt and structured finance veteran Bill Fishel as executive vice chairman. Fishel will specialize in raising debt and equity capital for institutional-grade assets and developments across North America, with a focus on structured finance. He will report to Chad Lavender, president of capital markets for North America at Newmark. In his 14-year career, Fishel has executed over $15 billion in financing for a wide range of asset classes, including retail, office, multifamily, industrial, hospitality, single tenant, land and data center properties. He... Read More »
Grandbridge Hired to Sell CCRC

Grandbridge Hired to Sell CCRC

Grandbridge Real Estate Capital has been hired to sell a 329-unit CCRC in Port Washington, New York, on Long Island. The entrance-fee community opened in 2010 on 8.9 acres, and the current bankruptcy is its third, and hopefully, final Chapter 11 filing. It is a beautiful community that had bad timing, opening at the end of the Great Recession during a very weak housing market, restructuring its debt twice, and then had to face the pandemic. In 2019, average occupancy was 93%, but it dropped with the pandemic. The community has approximately 229 independent living units, 26 assisted living units, 18 memory care units and 56 skilled beds. In-place IL rents average $5,800 per month and the... Read More »