• Strawberry Fields REIT’s 2025 Growth

    Strawberry Fields REIT reported its 2025 operating results, noting that it was the best year since its inception more than 10 year ago. The company posted significant increases in FFO and AFFO, and it completed more than $110 million in several new acquisitions. Its portfolio now includes 131 skilled nursing facilities, 10 assisted living... Read More »
  • Owner/Operator Exits SNF Sector

    An independent owner/operator exited the skilled nursing sector through its divestment of Sunrise Country Manor, which has 80 beds in Milford, Nebraska, and features a mix of private and semi-private units. It maintained an 83% occupancy rate at the time of the sale. A regional operator looking to expand its footprint in Nebraska acquired the... Read More »
  • Assisted Living Providers Join Forces 

    Majestic Residences recently expanded its footprint, adding 17 assisted living communities and six in active development, through its acquisition of Avendelle Senior Living. Avendelle will be integrated into the Majestic Residences platform, with Avendelle’s corporate team retained. The combined organization will operate under the Majestic... Read More »
  • Investor Secures Financing and Acquires Class-A Community

    BWE’s Seniors Housing Capital Markets Team sold and financed The Capstone at Station Camp, which sits in the Nashville, Tennessee MSA. Built in 2021, the Class-A assisted living and memory care community comprises 100 units in Gallatin. It is operated by TerraBella Senior Living.  BWE represented the seller, Hunt Midwest. The buyer was a... Read More »
  • Multiple SNFs Sell in Separate Transactions

    A large skilled nursing company sold its 181-bed skilled nursing facility to a private investment firm based in New York, exiting South Carolina in the process. The buyer had an existing skilled nursing footprint, and will be leasing this facility to a regional operator. The building was older, built in the 1980s, and was around 80% occupied at... Read More »
Skyline Healthcare Update

Skyline Healthcare Update

Skyline Healthcare’s Joseph Schwartz finally was sentenced for his crimes against the U.S., his employees and his residents. It seems, however, that the punishment does not fit the crime. Sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, plus a $100,000 fine, just does not seem to be enough for what he did. We have always wondered if he was the only one involved in the theft, or did he play the fall guy to keep friends and family out of prison. We may never know, but we have our opinions (don’t we always?). Stealing $39 million of tax withholding funds from his nursing home employees was bad enough, but walking away from about 100 nursing facilities after he... Read More »
Brookdale Occupancy Gains

Brookdale Occupancy Gains

Continuing a steady stream of small occupancy increases, Brookdale Senior Living bucked the historical norm of first quarter census declines for the seniors housing industry. In the first quarter, the monthly weighted average occupancy increased by 20 basis points to 79.5% in March. In addition, month-end occupancy hit a five-year high of 80.9%, ending above 80% for eight straight months. While this is all good news, Brookdale continues to lag the rest of the industry in terms of post-pandemic census growth. We previously reported on an investor activist group that is unhappy with Brookdale’s share price performance and has nominated a slate of six new board members. Now, another investor,... Read More »
Pacifica Senior Living Chapter 7 Filing Update

Pacifica Senior Living Chapter 7 Filing Update

After we and several other news outlets reported on the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing of Pacifica Senior Living LLC on March 24, we heard from the company about the filing and our story. Apparently, the liquidation filing was for one of their management entities, Pacifica Senior Living LLC, “whose sole purpose was to manage a subset of our communities in California. Pacifica Senior Living LLC does not own any senior living facilities and this filing will have no impact on the ownership of our properties, resident care, or our beloved staff. All of the senior living properties in our portfolio are independently owned, and each remains operational and unaffected by PSLM’s situation.”  The... Read More »
Pacifica Senior Living Goes Bust

Pacifica Senior Living Goes Bust

In what can only be said is a surprising move, Pacifica Senior Living filed for bankruptcy, but not the usual Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that would allow them to restructure their assets and debts and continue to operate. No, this is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, meaning the company will dissolve, liquidate what remains, and will be gonzo. And this after more than 45 years in business. The California-based privately-owned company had grown to just under 100 communities, making it one of the larger seniors housing companies in the country. In its largest transaction, it purchased 15 properties from Retirement Housing Foundation for $180.5 million in 2024. We have heard they suffered... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Here We Go Again

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Here We Go Again

Investigate, investigate, investigate. Regulate, regulate, regulate. Why not assist? Why not help? Why not try to understand? Liz, Ron and Kirsten, of U.S. Senate fame, have asked the GAO to investigate the assisted living industry and to see if federal oversight is needed. Really? Are we going down this road again? How did that work out for the nursing home industry? As we know, the assisted living sector is predominantly private pay, unlike nursing homes, but the senators are using information from state Medicaid agencies to back up their claims. I suppose I could see them investigating any assisted living community that is receiving Medicaid funds to make sure the money is wisely spent,... Read More »
Sonida Senior Living Grows For The Future

Sonida Senior Living Grows For The Future

The last to report 2024 earnings in our sector, Sonida Senior Living turned in a decent fourth quarter, but maybe not as good as they were hoping for. They are looking to the future, however, and not past performance, and are gearing up for growth.  While the same-community occupancy of 86.6% in the fourth quarter is certainly above average for the industry, the year-over-year increase of just 70 basis points was below average. Many providers are still putting out census growth numbers that will not be sustainable as communities begin to stabilize, so increasing by 70 basis points in the future will look pretty good. But we are not there yet, especially with new development still way... Read More »