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 (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: 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
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
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 »Schedule a demo
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