• Regional Owner/Operator Enters New State

    A regional owner/operator looking to enter the state of Indiana acquired Smith Farms Manor, an independent living community in Auburn, about 30 miles south of the Michigan border. Built in 1998, the community features 51 units and is well maintained. It sits on an attractive four-acre campus down the street from Parkview DeKalb Hospital and off... Read More »
  • Skilled Nursing Portfolio Gets New Operator

    Evans Senior Investments secured a new lease for a skilled nursing portfolio in Tennessee on behalf of an institutional owner. The portfolio features four assets and was operating below 70% occupancy with margins under 10%. Despite that performance, ESI secured a lease $3 million above in-place cash flow, reflecting the operational upside that... Read More »
  • Seniors Housing and Care M&A Remains Elevated in Q1:26

    The number of publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions in the first quarter of 2026 reached 231 deals, based on new acquisition data from LevinPro LTC. This represents a 19.8% decrease from the 288 transactions disclosed in the fourth quarter of 2025, but a 25.5% increase from the 184 deals in Q1:25.   “It was always going... Read More »
  • Clarion Acquires Again in Colorado

    Two years after opening a 160-unit seniors housing community in Centennial, Colorado (Denver MSA), MorningStar Senior Living announced an expanding relationship with Clarion Partners, a leading real estate investment company and specialty investment manager of Franklin Templeton, in its acquisition of MorningStar at Holly Park. The community... Read More »
  • Brookdale’s Summer Test Ahead

    Brookdale Senior Living reported its March occupancy results, and it unfortunately took another step in the wrong direction. We will get a better read when peers report first-quarter results and when NIC MAP releases its next tranche of occupancy data, but at this point, it seems as though Brookdale will need a particularly strong performance... Read More »

Brookdale and Monetizing Real Estate Value

Pressure is mounting on Brookdale Senior Living to monetize the value of its owned real estate, but at what cost? The pressure is increasing on Brookdale Senior Living “to do something” to monetize the hidden value in its owned real estate. This has all come up as a result of a weak fourth quarter from the recent Emeritus purchase. We have a big problem with all this. Yes, management always has to look to increase shareholder value. But everything that is being talked about is a short-term fix taking advantage of the current capital markets environment. As you know, we never liked the Emeritus acquisition for Brookdale. But now, by selling off the owned real estate of the combined company,... Read More »

Pressure on Brookdale To Pump Up Value

A dissident shareholder has emerged trying to pressure Brookdale Senior Living to monetize its real estate assets. With Brookdale Senior Living’s weak fourth quarter earnings announcement came the dissident shareholder response from Sandell Asset Management. They want Brookdale to monetize the value of the real estate owned to boost the share price by nearly 35%, taking advantage of higher REIT valuations. Sorry, but it just isn’t that easy. Sandell’s proposal is to spin out the real estate, most likely in a new REIT in a tax-free distribution to shareholders. Well, that’s fine, but if it sale/leasebacks on 35,000 units, what about those rent escalators on such a large portfolio? Would it... Read More »

Kindred Completes Gentiva Acquisition

With $7.2 billion in annual revenues, Kindred Healthcare is the largest post-acute provider in the country, but now the hard work begins. This past Monday, Kindred Healthcare closed on its $1.8 billion acquisition of home health and hospice provider Gentiva Health Services. With this completed, Kindred is entering a pivotal period in its corporate life because it has all the parts to run a true nationwide post-acute company, from hospital discharge to the home. It is the largest LTAC and inpatient rehab operator in the country, the largest provider of rehab, home health and hospice services in the country, and one of the largest subacute and skilled nursing providers. You might think that... Read More »

Seniors Housing Portfolio in New England Sells For Top Price

Nine properties in three states sell for over $500,000 per unit, more than doubling in value in 10 years. Patient capital in seniors housing can certainly reap its rewards. Take the case of Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate, which purchased nine senior living communities in New England from BayNorth Capital in 2005 for approximately $225,000 per unit. The one constant in the portfolio was Benchmark Senior Living, which was a minority co-investor with BayNorth and managed the portfolio. With the sale in 2005, they remained as the manager, and also stayed in as a co-investor. The portfolio has now been sold again, but for about $521,000 per unit. Individual properties have sold at a... Read More »

Ventas Closes ARC Deal

American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust shareholders trade their shares for Ventas shares. At the end of last week, Ventas closed on its acquisition of American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust. The deal was first announced last June 2 as a stock-for-stock transaction valued at about $2.6 billion, with up to 10% of the ARC shares redeemable for cash. At the time, Ventas was trading at about $66 per share, but its shares have increased by almost 17% to $77 since then. Fewer than one million shares of ARC took the cash option, with almost all shareholders taking the Ventas stock. And why not? The shares had appreciated, Ventas has a growing dividend, interest rates aren’t going anywhere... Read More »

Occupancy Increases in 4th Quarter

Assisted living and independent living occupancy rates continue to increase. It’s always nice to start the New Year with a little good news, and the good news I am talking about is the sequential and year-over-year increases in occupancy rates across seniors housing. The NIC MAP data has shown the largest increases to be in independent living, which makes sense since there are fewer new units coming on stream. The odd thing from the data is that occupancy levels in the primary 31 markets averages about 40 to 50 basis points lower than the other 68 markets covered by NIC MAP. A similar phenomenon exists with construction starts as a percentage of supply. In the top 31 markets, trailing... Read More »