


Brookdale Making Progress, but Is It Enough?
Brookdale Senior Living reported its best EBITDA performance in several years, nearly topping $100 million, RevPOR continues to grow (5.8% sequentially), and second quarter guidance for adjusted EBITDA is now between $93 million and $98 million. On the labor front, they had a solid 70% retention rate for Executive Directors for the trailing 12-month period. But…the company continues to struggle on the occupancy front. Second quarter weighted average occupancy was just 77.9%, down 50 basis points from the fourth quarter but up 160 basis points year over year. On a consolidated basis, weighted average occupancy in April, 77.9%, was a hair higher than in August of last year, and... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: REITs and PE Will Be Attacked Again
The Chapter 11 filing by Steward Health Care was not a surprise to anyone in the healthcare world. Its former PE owner, Cerberus Capital, will be attacked because they made a significant profit when they finally exited their 2010 investment 10 years later. No one wants to remember that they bought six failing hospitals in Massachusetts and rejuvenated them. Without that purchase, there was a good chance they would have been shuttered. Medical Properties Trust will be attacked because its leases ended up being too expensive, even though it helped Steward grow, took an equity interest in the company and provided new capital. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, and then COVID hit, and... Read More »
Here We Go Again With The Post
The Washington Post is on the attack again, publishing a story last Friday on the overuse of 911 calls when a resident falls in assisted living or independent living, and how some towns are starting to charge seniors housing communities a fee for each 911 visit of this sort. Apparently, in some towns these 911 “fall” calls have been rising. If we were living in a non-litigious world, perhaps the seniors housing communities would not feel as if they had to call. In some states, it is required if the resident can’t get up on their own. I used to live next door to a small independent living community that we called an unlicensed assisted living building because it had small units, mostly... Read More »
More Shareholder Activism
Fresh from its success in getting two people voted onto the Ventas Board of Directors, Land & Buildings is at it again, this time with National Health Investors. Like all the REITs, NHI’s managers and tenants had their share of problems during the pandemic. Who didn’t? Most of these issues are behind it, but the REIT could be in even stronger financial shape with just a few changes, which is what L&B wants to do. National Health Investors went public in 1991 and has had a long-term relationship with publicly traded National HealthCare Corporation (NHC), which leases several of its nursing homes from NHI. These 35 nursing facilities provide a solid foundation for NHI, and NHC has... Read More »