• Genesis HealthCare’s Legacy Liabilities Lead to Bankruptcy Filing

    Genesis HealthCare has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing its 298 affiliated holding companies, ancillary businesses and insurance vehicles in its submission to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division. It is one of the largest skilled nursing operators in the country and operates 218... Read More »
  • Cindat Capital Management Invests in Colorado Community

    Cindat Capital Management, a middle-market real estate private equity platform focused on seniors housing and opportunistic investments, announced its first investment from its Senior Housing Credit Platform. It was a unitranche debt investment in The Pearl at Boulder Creak, a 116-unit, Class-A independent living and assisted living community... Read More »
  • MedCore Divests to Publicly Traded Healthcare REIT

    Ziegler announced its role as exclusive sell-side financial advisor to MedCore on the sale of Parkview on Hollybrook, a 189-unit rental CCRC in Longview, Texas. The property has been on a long road to stabilization. It was originally bought in a bankruptcy auction in 2016 for $20.7 million by Thrive FP when it was in the middle of development. 12... Read More »
  • Forbright Bank’s H1 Activity

    Forbright Bank reported its activity for the first half of the year from its healthcare and HUD lending teams, announcing more than $500 million in loans closed for acquisitions, recapitalizations, working capital, and HUD financings for healthcare providers across the country. One of the largest transactions was a $60 million revolving loan to... Read More »
  • Large SNF Portfolio Secures Financing

    MONTICELLOAM, LLC announced the closing of $218.3 million in combined bridge, mezzanine, and working capital financing for 18 skilled nursing facilities across Kentucky. The transaction includes a $179.3 million senior bridge loan and a $29 million mezzanine loan, which the sponsor plans to use to restructure and upsize the existing debt on the... Read More »
Brookdale Bucking Historical Trend

Brookdale Bucking Historical Trend

Brookdale Senior Living announced its February occupancy results, and it was better than we expected. Month-end occupancy has now increased for three straight months since November. At the end of February, occupancy was 80.8%, marking the seventh straight month that it has topped 80%, and up 20 basis points from the end of January. As you know, the winter months are usually terrible for census, and this year the strong flu has not helped. But Brookdale has succeeded, nonetheless. Weighted average occupancy in February increased by 10 basis points to 79.3%, and that seems to be stuck in a holding pattern as it has hardly budged for six months. The share price jumped by 3.6% on the news on a... Read More »
Brookdale Bucking Historical Trend

Activists Are Knocking On Brookdale’s Door

Not to toot our own horn (sorry), but very recently we predicted that Brookdale Senior Living’s growing percentage of owned properties would attract activist investors yet again. That, and the continued poor performance of its share price.  It has now happened, again. Ortelius Advisors, which controls approximately 1.3% of Brookdale’s common stock, announced a slate of candidates for the Board that it will propose at Brookdale’s annual meeting later this year. Ortelius, like many other investors, has grown tired of the unfulfilled promises made and slow turnaround at the company, especially compared with the rest of the industry.  The slate being proposed by Ortelius includes six... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: DOGE, The Budget and Healthcare Spending

60 Seconds with Swett: DOGE, The Budget and Healthcare Spending

DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, has been making the biggest splash in Washington, D.C. these days in terms of attention-grabbing headlines, and it appears it will try to target waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid spending as part of its efforts. Such a move could have a major impact on thousands of facilities’ bottom lines and could change how SNFs do business if reimbursement rates are affected.  That is a major dark cloud hanging over the industry, but there are way too many unknowns to even properly prepare for what’s to come. Because, what is to come? Would DOGE’s efforts go beyond just “waste, fraud and abuse,” which should be rooted out? Will the... Read More »
Brookdale Bucking Historical Trend

Brookdale Senior Living: Slow and Steady

Brookdale Senior Living released its fourth quarter and full-year earnings results this week, and all we can say is that the improvements, while welcomed, are slow and steady. Management has had a lot on its plate the past 18 months or so in a post-pandemic environment, but things like occupancy are moving up, but not as fast as for others. The problem as we have seen and vocalized for several years, is that it takes a long time to move a battleship in a new direction. And as the largest senior living provider in the country, it was a very large battleship to move. Management has successfully put in motion most of the necessary changes for the future, but now comes the execution part, and... Read More »
Welltower and Ventas Continue to Outperform

Welltower and Ventas Continue to Outperform

The Big Two REITs, Welltower and Ventas, continue to outperform the overall seniors housing market, leading the way in the post-pandemic recovery as the two largest owners of seniors housing properties.  Welltower reported its fourth quarter and year-end 2024 results first, and it was impressive. Its fourth quarter same-community SHOP NOI increased by 23.9% year over year, while revenue increased by 8.8%. Same-community average occupancy increased by 310 basis points year over year, and the NOI margin jumped by 320 basis points in the fourth quarter. These are unusually strong numbers, but at some point, the growth rate will have to decline as back-to-back 20% plus increases will be... Read More »
60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: The Coming Seniors Housing Shortage?

60ish Seconds with Steve Monroe: The Coming Seniors Housing Shortage?

The Wall Street Journal just came out with a story about the coming seniors housing shortage. Unfortunately, it started with misinformation, when it stated that “seniors housing has been one of the biggest disappointments for commercial real estate investors.” In some periods yes, but in other periods not at all, when it has had outsized returns and beat the other sectors. It is all about context, and the writer should have known better. The story may, however, generate some investment interest. We are glad that occupancy has reached pre-pandemic levels, but we really need to get to 2017 levels to be happy. Remember, back in October 2020 we did the analysis and concluded it would take at... Read More »