• ESI Adds Capital Markets & Debt Advisory Team

    Evans Senior Investments has expanded its platform to now include a dedicated Capital Markets & Debt Advisory team to source debt solutions for its clients. Complementary to its brokerage/investment sales services and benefitting from Evans’ robust lender network, the new platform will facilitate acquisition financings, refinancings,... Read More »
  • Optimism across the Board in BBG’s Investor Survey Results

    Ben Swett, Managing Editor of The SeniorCare Investor, sat down with R.J. DeBee, Senior Managing Director – Seniors Housing & Healthcare National Practice Leader of BBG Real Estate Services, to discuss the biggest takeaways of BBG’s fifth Annual Investor Survey. Read More »
  • Lument Closes Freddie Mac Refinance

    Lument closed a $26.8 million Freddie Mac refinance for Treeo South Ogden, a 143-unit independent living community in Ogden, Utah, approximately 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. Tyler Armstrong, Chris Cain and Taylor Russ, all managing directors with Lument, led the transaction. Treeo South Ogden was purpose-built in 2015, and has been owned and... Read More »
  • Berkadia Handles Detroit-Area Deal

    Berkadia closed the sale of Oakleigh of Macomb, an 85-unit assisted living/memory care community in Macomb, Michigan (Detroit MSA). Built in 2019, the community has 55 assisted living and 30 memory care units. It was 91% occupied, so given its vintage and performance, we imagine it attracted significant investor interest. Berkadia represented the... Read More »
  • Developer Divests MC Communities to Kalesta Healthcare

    G Capital helped facilitate the sale of two memory care communities in Silicon Valley in an off-market transaction. Calson Management, a developer/operator based in Vacaville, California, had acquired Silver Oaks Memory Care in Menlo Park and Crescent Oaks Memory Care in Sunnyvale several years ago as value-add opportunities. The firm... Read More »
The Secret Sauce To Success

The Secret Sauce To Success

Empowering your Executive Directors may be the way to go. I finally found out the secret sauce for success in the senior care market, at least for The Ensign Group. It is called empowerment. Simplistically, the home office does not interfere with the operations at each local community. Other than property, casualty and health insurance, the executive directors are pretty much free to do what they want with expenses. But, they have to succeed. Here’s the deal. A young ED is given full P&L responsibility, with certain benchmarks, of course. He or she is then part of a local team of a few other EDs, and they meet regularly and compare notes on costs and revenues. They can even decide on... Read More »
The Secret Sauce To Success

Average SNF And Seniors Housing Prices Hit Four-Year Low

The headwinds facing skilled nursing and assisted living have finally had their impact on acquisition values. We are obviously not in good times right now, but it is also not as bad as it sometimes appears. The mood is cautious for most, but hopeful for many, as occupancy and labor continue to be the problem issues facing the entire industry. What I don’t like, however, is when news reports come out saying that 50% of SNFs nationally lose money. What they fail to say is that this is after depreciation, amortization, interest and lease expense. Before these costs, the vast majority of nursing facilities are still making money, just not as much as in the past. It looks like 2018 was finally... Read More »
The Secret Sauce To Success

Thank Wayne Kaplan

Offering free meals to federal workers without a paycheck is the way to go. For all of you who have descended on Los Angeles for the annual ASHA meeting this week, please thank Wayne Kaplan of Premier Senior Living for their generosity, and smarts. At the company’s 23 assisted living and memory care communities located in six states, they have been offering federal workers going without a paycheck free meals at their communities. It can be breakfast, lunch and dinner. While we don’t know how many people took them up on this offer, think of the goodwill it will generate across their locations, especially when the word gets out. We are making the assumption, of course, that the food is good.... Read More »
What Did the Experts Say on Seniors Housing’s Occupancy Woes?

What Did the Experts Say on Seniors Housing’s Occupancy Woes?

Occupancy issues have spared few senior living operators in the past year, and signs are not good for the next year either. An overactive development market and declining absorption rate made for a relatively abysmal year for census figures in seniors housing and care. With that increased competition, sales and marketing are even more crucial to the success of every community. New communities have to fill their units without the aid of resident reviews and an established local reputation. Older communities have to convince seniors why their communities are better than the shiny new competitor down the street. But how do you reach those potential residents? How do train your sales staff to... Read More »
The Secret Sauce To Success

The Good and the Bad of NIC’s Latest Occupancy Numbers

Fourth quarter occupancy may have been flat, but it is sure to decline in the early part of this year. We need to find new ways to deal with it. What great timing, with NIC’s occupancy and construction numbers just released for the fourth quarter, given our webinar tomorrow. Here’s the good news. Occupancy was stable in the fourth quarter, and new construction as a share of existing inventory, while still high at 6.0%, is 130 basis points off its recent high in the fourth quarter of 2017. And, at long last we seem to be reaching equilibrium between new supply and demand. The bad news is that assisted living occupancy is still low at 85.4%, and while unchanged from the third quarter, was... Read More »
Capital Senior Living’s New CEO

Capital Senior Living’s New CEO

The day after it was announced that Kim Lody had been appointed as the new CEO of Capital Senior Living, we had the opportunity for a little one on one with her. Since she has been a director for the past four years, she was obviously well versed in the company’s issues and opportunities. But when asked why shareholders should be confident in her moving forward as CEO when she was a director during the largest collapse in shareholder value ever for the company, she had a decent response: “I wasn’t the CEO, so I had limited influence.” Well, now she is, and the buck will stop with her. The good news for shareholders is that she has a very strong background in sales and marketing, which is... Read More »