• Grace Management Adds Five Ventas Communities

    Grace Management expanded its relationship with Ventas, adding five seniors housing communities owned by the REIT to its operating portfolio. The communities were previously managed under a triple-net lease structure. They include Brookdale Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, Brookdale Northbrook in Northbrook, Illinois, Brookdale Springs Mesa... Read More »
  • Seller Boosts Census Ahead of Sale to JV

    Senwell Senior Investment Advisors sold Rose Hill Retirement Community, a 66-unit, 87-bed assisted living community in Marion, North Carolina. Originally built as a hospital, Rose Hill has been transformed by the seller over the past two decades into a senior care community. After a previous attempt to sell the community was unsuccessful,... Read More »
  • Joint Venture Buys Orange County Community

    A high-end seniors housing community in Orange County sold with the help of CBRE National Senior Housing. Aron Will and John Sweeny represented the joint venture seller in the deal, while Will and Matthew Kuronen arranged acquisition financing from a national bank. The loan came with a four-year term, a full term of interest only and a floating... Read More »
  • Developer Secures Construction Financing

    JLL Capital Markets arranged a $47 million construction financing for The Arbella at Blue Hills, a 164-unit, active adult community to be developed in Bloomfield, Connecticut. JLL worked on behalf of the developer, The United Group of Companies, Inc. (United Group) to secure the construction loan through Liberty Bank of Middletown, Connecticut.... Read More »
  • Midwest-Based Operator Refinances AL/MC Communities

    MONTICELLOAM, LLC, along with firm affiliates, provided a $28.5 million senior bridge financing for two Midwest seniors housing communities. The financing was originated by Karina Davydov, Senior Managing Director, Originations. The sponsor, a Midwest-based operator with a portfolio of over 40 seniors housing and healthcare properties and a... Read More »
Welltower Still Sees Opportunity

Welltower Still Sees Opportunity

We all know that Welltower has been selling a few billion of seniors housing assets just like Healthpeak Properties has. But the difference is that Welltower is still buying. Not only that, they picked up a 790-unit portfolio operated by Harbor Retirement Associates for $132 million, or $167,000 per unit. The seller? Healthpeak (see story above). Even though the portfolio had negative lease coverage, we are sure Welltower is looking at that well-below-replacement-cost pricing.  But Welltower needs to pay attention to its own operating portfolio, where occupancy continues to decline. The average census was 77.3% in November, falling to 76.3%... Read More »
Callison Moves To Sunrise Senior Living

Callison Moves To Sunrise Senior Living

Jack Callison Jr. has been named the new CEO of Sunrise Senior Living, after the December announcement that current CEO Chris Winkle was leaving effective April 1. Ferguson Partners led the executive search effort. Mr. Callison has spent the last seven and a half years as CEO of Enlivant, taking over the role concurrent with TPG’s take private acquisition of the company. However, he will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors at Enlivant, and current president and COO Dan Guill will take over as CEO.   Before that, Mr. Callison spent five years in the CEO position at Holiday Retirement, some of which were a bit tumultuous. Running two different national seniors housing operating... Read More »
Long-Term Care Insurance Moratorium?

Long-Term Care Insurance Moratorium?

In a lack of wisdom, North Dakota legislators are considering a bill to ban long-term care insurance policy sales for three years. Just as Medicaid funding is getting stretched and the need for long-term care services will be increasing, North Dakota is apparently considering a bill that would impose a three-year ban on the sale of long-term care insurance policies. Really? The sponsors want to study the market and the history of premium increases. Great, and they have every right to do so, but to ban sales for three years while you “study the market”? Come on, how big is the market in North Dakota? Spend a week. Look, long-term care insurance is not perfect, and there are Cadillac... Read More »
People on the Move

People on the Move

Early last year, we were surprised when Torey Riso told us he was leaving Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, where he had been serving as President and CEO. He was brought in by the founders to add experience and his contacts to the growing firm. And grow it did. He figured he had done what was needed and it was a good time to leave. And then the pandemic hit, which we are sure altered his post-Blueprint plans.  It was just announced that he has joined Huron Consulting Group as a Managing Director specializing in healthcare services, but particularly the senior care market. He has helped small and mid-size operators scale their operations, and in particular will... Read More »
The Vaccine and Census

The Vaccine and Census

The COVID-19 vaccine was supposed to solve the census crisis brought on by the virus, but it is not happening fast enough. Optimism still exists, however. A lot has been riding on the success of the vaccine rollout, for everyone personally as well as for the entire senior care industry. But I am worried. When I hear that certain areas are running out of vaccines, when I hear that it may not be as effective with some of the new strains entering our country, when I hear from some providers that up to 50% of their staff have decided not to get vaccinated, well, what does that say about how and when we will recover from this devastating virus? There is some optimism out there, with one... Read More »
Jon Harder Gets Sentence Commuted

Jon Harder Gets Sentence Commuted

When was the last time anyone thought about Jon Harder, the founder and CEO of Sunwest Management who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the “misuse of investment funds during the real estate crisis” of 2007 to 2009? Well, that is an understatement if we ever saw one. At its height, Sunwest was one of the largest senior living companies in the country.  Back in the day, in the 2000s, when Mr. Harder was building his empire, overpaying for properties and then not properly managing them, people often wondered, “how is he doing it?” We heard from many brokers that the runner up bids were often 10% to 20% below what Sunwest was offering, not even close enough to ask anyone... Read More »