


A Message from Steve Monroe on Brookdale: Brookdale CEO Is Out
While President Trump had a busy weekend changing course on some of his tariffs, the Board of Brookdale Senior Living was busy as well. After serving as CEO of Brookdale for just over eight years, and as CFO for three years before that, Cindy Baier is out as CEO and Board member effective April 13. The share price initially jumped by 10% on the news. This does not come as a surprise as the company has struggled financially during most of, if not all of, her tenure. To be fair, she inherited a lot of problems from her predecessor, Andy Smith, including expensive leases, a very bad acquisition and too many buildings. And then two years after she became CEO, the pandemic hit. We are not sure... Read More »
Land & Buildings Targets National Health Investors
It seems to be the season for activist investors not happy with investment values, but these days, who is happy unless you shorted the entire market on March 31? In addition to what is happening with Brookdale Senior Living, Land & Buildings, no stranger to the senior care industry, has put forward a few board candidates for National Health Investors. It seems they are not happy with the current board composition and believe there are a few conflicts of interest between board members who own NHI shares as well as shares of NHI’s major tenant, National Healthcare Corporation. L&B believes that the lease payments from NHC are too low, and that with an increase it would benefit... Read More »
Skyline Healthcare Update
Skyline Healthcare’s Joseph Schwartz finally was sentenced for his crimes against the U.S., his employees and his residents. It seems, however, that the punishment does not fit the crime. Sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, plus a $100,000 fine, just does not seem to be enough for what he did. We have always wondered if he was the only one involved in the theft, or did he play the fall guy to keep friends and family out of prison. We may never know, but we have our opinions (don’t we always?). Stealing $39 million of tax withholding funds from his nursing home employees was bad enough, but walking away from about 100 nursing facilities after he... Read More »
Brookdale Occupancy Gains
Continuing a steady stream of small occupancy increases, Brookdale Senior Living bucked the historical norm of first quarter census declines for the seniors housing industry. In the first quarter, the monthly weighted average occupancy increased by 20 basis points to 79.5% in March. In addition, month-end occupancy hit a five-year high of 80.9%, ending above 80% for eight straight months. While this is all good news, Brookdale continues to lag the rest of the industry in terms of post-pandemic census growth. We previously reported on an investor activist group that is unhappy with Brookdale’s share price performance and has nominated a slate of six new board members. Now, another investor,... Read More »