• Seller Exits Seniors Industry with Divestment to REIT

    A single-asset seniors housing owner is exiting the industry with the sale of their property in Murrieta, California. Built in 2016 and 2018, Renaissance Village Murrieta has 142 units of assisted living and memory care in three stories. It was operating just below 70% occupancy, so there is plenty of room for a new owner to improve performance... Read More »
  • Deal Closes Following Buyer Withdrawals

    After a long process that saw multiple buyers pull out from the deal, the sale of Sarah Neuman Skilled Nursing Facility in Mamaroneck, New York, has closed with the help of Mark Myers at Kiser Group. Owned by a religious not-for-profit organization, The New Jewish Home, the facility features 301 beds. Myers had previously facilitated the 2016... Read More »
  • Community Trades Hands and Secures Freddie Mac Financing

    Berkadia announced the sale and financing of Appletree Court, a 118-unit assisted living and memory care community in Richardson, Texas, in the Dallas MSA. The building was built in 1999 and underwent renovations in 2018 and 2023. Ross Sanders, Dave Fasano, Cody Tremper and Mike Garbers of Berkadia Seniors Housing & Healthcare closed the sale... Read More »
  • October Kicks Off with Multiple Financings

    VIUM Capital announced a slew of closings at the start of October, ranging from HUD refinances to acquisition loans. The largest was a $72 million bride loan that refinanced four skilled nursing facilities in Pennsylvania totaling 525 beds. Proceeds will be used to take out senior debt and senior mezzanine debt. The facility will be structured as... Read More »
  • Newmark Negotiates Several Large Financings

    Sarah Anderson of Newmark has closed some notable financing transactions in the last couple of months, in addition to arranging acquisition financing for numerous deals handled by the Newmark investment sales team. One of the closings was for Vivante at Turtle Creek, a to-be-built seniors housing community on the prestigious Turtle Creek... Read More »
CareTrust REIT CEO Greg Stapley Steps Down

CareTrust REIT CEO Greg Stapley Steps Down

Amid rumors that CareTrust REIT was looking to make some changes, which may have included a sale or merger of the company into another REIT, the company announced that the CEO, Greg Stapley, will be stepping down at the end of the year, and sometime next year he will commence a three-year, full-time volunteer assignment with The Church of Latter-Day Saints with his wife.  CareTrust was spun out from The Ensign Group in 2014 and Greg has been the only CEO since then. He will become the Executive Chairman at CareTrust.  Taking over will be David Sedgewick, who has been President and COO and will now add the CEO title. He was with Ensign from 2001... Read More »

Residents of Washington State Getting Bamboozled

In just five short weeks, the residents of Washington State will begin paying a new payroll tax to fund a “long-term care” benefit, called the WA Cares Fund. It is the first state-wide mandated LTC tax, and we have previously voiced our concerns about it. But it will be a reality for residents soon.  Years ago, we went very public against the Class Act that was part of the Affordable Care Act, basically calling it a financial fraud that was never going to pay out for anyone. Even the authors of the ACA finally admitted it would not work, and eventually withdrew it. Like in Washington State, the federal program was well-intentioned (well, sort of) to try to fund some long-term care... Read More »

Private Equity-Owned SNFs

Here we go again. According to a new study published by JAMA Health Forum, private equity-owned nursing homes are not cutting it compared to those nursing homes owned by other for-profits. In addition, PE-owned homes were more likely to have an acute coronary syndrome ER visit and more likely to have a resulting hospitalization. In addition, total Medicare costs (revenues) were higher. This needs some context.  First of all, the size of the PE-owned group was just over 3% (300+ facilities) of the size of the larger for-profit group, so a pretty small group. Second, most PE firms, after a skilled nursing acquisition (and usually a portfolio) do try to change things to increase the... Read More »
‘Tis The Season To Borrow

‘Tis The Season To Borrow

So, inflation is at a 30-year high, but interest rates have not increased much. It is actually all relative since they are much higher than when the 10-year Treasury hit a low of 0.54% in March 2020. But seriously, that was a bit silly, just like oil at a negative price per barrel.  If the inflation numbers stay high for a while, and end up not being “transitory,” something we heard several months ago but not so much lately, at some point that has to get embedded into interest rates. Which leads us to conclude that now is not a bad time to shore up your capital structure and borrow or refinance before rates rise.  Two REITs are taking advantage of the market conditions, both with... Read More »
Genesis HealthCare Makes Changes

Genesis HealthCare Makes Changes

Just after announcing that its CEO would be stepping down, Genesis HealthCare revealed more changes. The current COO, Paul Bach, the Chief Nursing Officer, JoAnne Reifsnyder, and the CFO, Tom DiVittorio, have all announced they will be leaving the company. They have spent the past 38 years, 10 years and 25 years, respectively, at the company, so a lot of institutional knowledge will be walking out the door.   The new COO will be Melissa Powell, who most recently was the President and COO of The Allure Group, a New York City-based nursing home operator. Orrin Feingold joins Genesis as the new CFO. He has had similar positions... Read More »
Chartwell Retirement Residences Sees Census Slowdown

Chartwell Retirement Residences Sees Census Slowdown

North of the border, Canada-based Chartwell Retirement Residences has seen a small uptick in its weighted average occupancy rate for its retirement residences, but nothing like what we have seen in the U.S.  For Chartwell’s same-community portfolio, occupancy ended July at 76.3%, gained 30 basis points in August and 10 basis points in September, to end the third quarter at 76.7%. But October saw just a 10-basis point increase again to 76.8%, and they are forecasting occupancy to remain there through the end of the year. We have not heard any U.S. companies believing they would remain flat for the rest of the year.   Management claims that move-ins have... Read More »