• Keppel Becomes Sole Owner of Watermark

    Keppel Capital Senior Living, a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation that is responsible for the senior living investments and acquisitions, increased its investment in Watermark Retirement Communities to become the sole owner, effective March 19. Keppel Capital has been Watermark’s equity partner since March 2020.   In 2018, Keppel Capital... Read More »
  • Life Care’s Board Unanimously Approves New Chairman and CEO

    Life Care Centers of America, which operates more than 200 skilled nursing, post-acute, Alzheimer’s and senior living campuses in 27 states, announced that Aubrey B. Preston has been named the company’s Chairman and CEO. Life Care’s Board of Directors unanimously approved Preston as chairman and CEO after the Bradley County Chancery Court named... Read More »
  • Dwight Capital’s March Activity

    Dwight Capital and its affiliate REIT, Dwight Mortgage Trust, closed more than $364 million in real estate financing in March. Featured among the transactions were a bridge loan for Silverwoods in New Jersey, a bridge loan for a three-property skilled nursing portfolio in Rhode Island and a HUD 223(f) refinance for Skyview Heights in Washington... Read More »
  • Ohio Senior Care Portfolio Sells to Ohio-Based Operator

    Connor Doherty and Ryan Kelly of Blueprint facilitated the sale of Project United, a strategically clustered portfolio comprising five skilled nursing facilities and two assisted living communities in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. The portfolio has a unique ownership structure with operational complexities, so Blueprint worked closely with... Read More »
  • Private Equity Firm Expands Seniors Housing Presence

    Jason Punzel, Patrick Burke and Jeff Binder of Senior Living Investment Brokerage were engaged by a West Coast-based private equity firm divesting a seniors housing community in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, as part of a strategic rightsizing of its portfolio. The community features 56 independent living, 75 assisted living and 16 memory care units... Read More »
Seniors Housing Occupancy Hits New Post-Pandemic High

Seniors Housing Occupancy Hits New Post-Pandemic High

NIC released its latest seniors housing occupancy update for the 31 NIC Map Primary Markets, and fourth quarter 2024 census has hit another post-pandemic occupancy high. Overall seniors housing occupancy rose to 87.2%, up 70 basis points from 86.5% in the third quarter. Separated out by property type, majority-independent living properties were 88.6% occupied in Q4, and majority-assisted living properties were 85.7% occupied. While the Primary markets averaged 87.2%, the 99 Primary and Secondary markets combined averaged 87.7% and the remaining 41 markets to round out the 140 total markets that NIC tracks averaged 88.5%. Overall, occupancy was 87.8% for all 140 markets. The last time... Read More »
Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

As we are now in full swing of the flu (and COVID) season, it is normal to expect that occupancy levels nationwide would decline slightly even though the seniors housing industry continues on its operational upswing. This is exactly what happened at Brookdale Senior Living. Consolidated weighted average occupancy in December declined sequentially by 20 basis points to 79.3%. This compares with 79.2% in September. In slightly better news, occupancy at the end of December was 80.5%, up 10 basis points from November, but still down 30 basis points from October and matching September’s level. However, Brookdale has now posted five straight months of month-end census above 80%, and barring any... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: First off, Happy New Year Everyone.

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: First off, Happy New Year Everyone.

I suspect many of you think I am going to talk about the record setting M&A year in 2024 for long-term care, but I believe Ben has fully covered that and will continue to do so in the coming weeks as the stats are finalized. Plus, he now knows more than I do on the topic. No. I am going to talk about a book I just read, called The Big 100 by William Kole. All we have heard about for years, even decades, is the growth in the 80+ and 85+ population and what it will do for the seniors housing industry. This book is about the 100+ population, called centenarians, and super-centenarians, those who have attained 110 years and older. The centenarian group is the fastest growing age cohort,... Read More »
Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

Brookdale and Ventas, a Win-Win

Just weeks after Brookdale Senior Living walked away from its lease renewal with Ventas covering some 120 communities, the two companies came to an agreement that appears to be a win-win for both.  Brookdale will continue to lease 65 communities which average about 62 units each and represent 40% of the units in the original master lease. The initial cash rent on these will increase by 38% and will now be $64 million with 3% annual escalators. But for 2025, Brookdale will pay the contractual rent of $48 million on these. For the remainder, 44 communities will go into the Ventas SHOP portfolio with new operators, to be determined later. Annualized NOI for these after a 5% management... Read More »
Who Wins in Class Action Staffing Litigation

Who Wins in Class Action Staffing Litigation

The American Seniors Housing Association and Hanson Bridgett just came out with an “Industry Brief” on the settlement of a class action lawsuit called Heredia v. Sunrise Senior Living. The settlement was approved on December 3, but the lawsuit had been winding its way through the courts since 2017. Apparently, for these kinds of staffing lawsuits this is the longest time period recorded. The basis of the class action lawsuit was allegations of understaffing, with staffing levels unrelated to the care needs of residents, as well as allegations that representations by owners/operators to residents and prospective residents that sufficient staffing was in place were misleading. While we have... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Cap Rates Coming Down?

60 Seconds with Swett: Cap Rates Coming Down?

Cap rate data has been difficult to measure in the last couple of years, due to a fast-changing capital costs environment, a relatively fast-changing operating environment and, frankly, a relative absence of true “cap rate deals” where the buyer was valuing the trailing set of financials, without any funny business. Now, we are seeing more “cap rate deals” and look forward to providing our industry averages, broken out by property type, quality, age and performance in our next Senior Care Acquisition Report.  Anecdotally, what we are hearing is that cap rates are compressing slightly, but in the grand scheme of things, are staying relatively high relative to the record (and some may say... Read More »