• Interview with Bryan Lockard of JLL Value and Risk Advisory

    Ben Swett, Managing Editor of The SeniorCare Investor, sat down with Bryan Lockard of JLL Value and Risk Advisory to discuss JLL’s 2024 Seniors Housing and Care Investor Survey and Trends, which you can download here. Read More »
  • Wow…Sonida Senior Living

    The last company in our sector, Sonida Senior Living, finally reported fourth quarter and full-year 2023 earnings, and while pretty good, that was not even the story. The story started four weeks ago. In February, the company announced a series of capital transactions which reduced their debt, raised some equity, and provided liquidity to take... Read More »
  • Marcus & Millichap Arranges SNF Leases

    After purchasing four senior care campuses in a large portfolio deal, a seniors housing owner/operator turned to Marcus & Millichap to find new tenants for the skilled nursing portions of each newly acquired campus. Each building was losing close to $1 million annually and had struggled with occupancy and expenses.  While the portfolio... Read More »
  • LSS Absorbs Diakon

    Two large not-for-profits announced that they were combining to create the 12th largest not-for-profit senior living organization in the country. Lutheran Senior Services, based in St. Louis, Missouri, signed an agreement to bring Diakon Senior Living operations and four CCRCs under its umbrella. Both organizations were described by Adam Marles,... Read More »
  • SNF Under Receivership Is Acquired in Kansas

    Marcus & Millichap was brought on by a limited liability company in the sale of a skilled nursing facility in Topeka, Kansas, that was under receivership. The facility, Providence Living Center, comprises 78 beds across 24,000 square feet and focuses on senior residents with mental health needs. Rod Llanos and Colby Haugness handled the... Read More »
Priority Life Care Does It Again

Priority Life Care Does It Again

Not once, not twice, but now several times Priority Life Care has been brought in by an institutional owner of underperforming senior living assets and turned them around in less than a year. The company’s track record is attracting even more institutional interest. In the most recent example, American Healthcare REIT (NYSE: AHR), which just closed its IPO, hired Priority Life last May to manage six senior living communities in Indiana (5) and Michigan (1) that were losing money on 78% combined occupancy. The communities have a combined 652 units, with assisted living comprising 389 units, independent living 188 units and memory care 75 units. The licensed bed count is higher, and the... Read More »
Ventas Reports

Ventas Reports

After Welltower’s solid fourth quarter performance, all eyes were on Ventas, which has not pursued the aggressive growth path that Welltower has. Operating metrics were up in its SHOP portfolio of seniors housing communities, but not up as much as investors would have hoped. But that is not the fault of Ventas; rather, it is the fault of the operators that are underperforming. Same-community occupancy increased 170 basis points in the fourth quarter, year over year, to 84.9%. Revenue was up year over year by 7.0% while expenses were up just 4.2%. This drove a 15.0% increase in cash NOI and a 180-basis point increase in the NOI margin to 25.4%, and this is after management fees. Not bad,... Read More »
Ventas Reports

Sonida Senior Living Readies for Next Phase

Don’t you love it when a plan finally comes together? Sonida Senior Living has been working diligently to streamline its capital structure, not to mention improving its census and margins. Yesterday they announced two major developments which should set the stage for future growth. First, they purchased $77.4 million of outstanding debt held by Protective Life for $40.2 million, or a 52% discount, across seven communities. We are not sure we have seen that large of a discount in the market, and perhaps news of this will light a fire under some other creditors. Part of the purchase price was funded by a $24.8 million expansion of Sonida’s existing term loan with Ally Bank. An additional $44... Read More »
Ventas Reports

Some Providers Still Stuck In Pandemic Swamp

Diversified Healthcare Trust reported on the December performance of its seniors housing operators, and let’s just say it seems that little progress has been made.  In the seniors housing operating portfolio (SHOP) operated by Aleris/Five Star, with 117 communities and 16,951 units, in 2023 census increased by only 240 basis points to 80.4% in December. But that is not the major problem. The average monthly rate has held fairly stable, ending the year at $4,429 compared with $4,278 in January last year. The problem has been expenses, which increased by 11% over the year, jumping by 5% from November to December alone. That resulted in a plunge in NOI in December to $4.0 million,... Read More »
300 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Here We Go Again

300 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Here We Go Again

Whenever there are headlines about anything in senior care, we can always count on Senate hearings, with a lot of unfounded accusations and unrealistic recommendations. This usually leads to a new commission being formed, the results of which are delivered a year later in 300 pages that no one reads, except perhaps Richard Mollot of the Long Term Care Community Coalition. But that is his job. It is doubtful Liz Warren will read it. Let me start with Richard Mollot, who apparently claimed at the January 25th Senate hearing that there is a crisis in assisted living, and compared assisted living today with nursing homes in the 1970s and 1980s. Really? Did he ever go into a nursing home back... Read More »
2023 U.S. Deal Activity Nears 450 Transactions

2023 U.S. Deal Activity Nears 450 Transactions

The preliminary numbers are in, and the 2023 senior care M&A market ended up healthier than most would have predicted at the start of the year. U.S. transaction volume, based on deals that have been publicly announced but not necessarily closed (although most deals are completed by the time they are disclosed to us), reached 441 deals in 2023. That is 15% down from 2022’s domestic volume of 517 transactions, but it surpasses 2021’s deal volume of 427 transactions by 3%.  Given the pullback in liquidity, the rapidly changing capital costs, economic uncertainty and collapse in cash flow at communities across the industry, a more precipitous drop in M&A volume could have been... Read More »