• 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... Read More »
  • Berkadia’s Recent Transaction Activity

    Berkadia announced the financing of four seniors housing communities totaling $29.9 million in Mississippi, Florida and Indiana, with all the deals closing since November. Berkadia also announced the sale of two seniors housing communities.  In November, Steve Muth and Andrew Lanzaro leveraged HUD’s 232/223(f) program to close two loans... Read More »
  • Blueprint’s Q4 Closings

    Blueprint announced a couple of its Q4 closings. In one, a not-for-profit organization took over a seniors housing community in the Hartford, Connecticut MSA, from a publicly traded REIT. The buyer appears to be Masonicare, which announced its acquisition of Atria Greenridge Place in the town of Rocky Hill. Built in 1998, the 108-unit assisted... Read More »
  • Allaire Healthcare Acquires PA CCRC

    A majority-skilled nursing CCRC in Coal Township, Pennsylvania, was sold by a private PA-based owner divesting his last owned building. Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage handled the transaction, which saw Allaire Healthcare, a New Jersey-based owner/operator with a strong presence in eastern Pennsylvania, emerge as the buyer.... Read More »
  • Florida Trio Trades to AEW

    A seniors housing portfolio that includes Watercrest Buena Vista, Watercrest Spanish Springs and Watercrest Winter Park in Florida sold to AEW Capital Management. The three communities total 416 units in The Villages and Winter Park. JLL’s Seniors Housing Capital Markets team represented the seller, Titan Development, in the transaction, which... Read More »
The Current Lending Environment for Senior Care Properties

The Current Lending Environment for Senior Care Properties

The financing process has killed dozens (and hundreds) of deals in the last couple of years, and yet M&A activity is near record levels in the seniors housing and care industry. So deals are getting done, and not just with cash. Who has been lending and at what cost to the borrower? What hurdles have to be overcome? And when capital costs do lower, how can owners and operators best prepare to finance the oncoming wave of deals and demographics? Read More »
Sonida Senior Living On The Move

Sonida Senior Living On The Move

It has taken a while, and a lot had to be done to strengthen the balance sheet over the past two years, but Sonida Senior Living is now on a path of growth, and recent announcements have shown it.  On May 9, the company closed on its first acquisition of the year with the purchase of a 100-unit assisted living and memory care community in Macedonia, Ohio. Built in 2015, the community has still not recovered from the challenges of the pandemic and changes in operators. The purchase price was $10.7 million, or $107,000 per unit, which seems quite cheap relative to what it would cost to replace, not to mention the original construction cost. They also bought it at a 43% discount to the... Read More »
Brookdale Making Progress, but Is It Enough?

Brookdale Making Progress, but Is It Enough?

Brookdale Senior Living reported its best EBITDA performance in several years, nearly topping $100 million, RevPOR continues to grow (5.8% sequentially), and second quarter guidance for adjusted EBITDA is now between $93 million and $98 million. On the labor front, they had a solid 70% retention rate for Executive Directors for the trailing 12-month period. But…the company continues to struggle on the occupancy front.  Second quarter weighted average occupancy was just 77.9%, down 50 basis points from the fourth quarter but up 160 basis points year over year. On a consolidated basis, weighted average occupancy in April, 77.9%, was a hair higher than in August of last year, and... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: REITs and PE Will Be Attacked Again

60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: REITs and PE Will Be Attacked Again

The Chapter 11 filing by Steward Health Care was not a surprise to anyone in the healthcare world. Its former PE owner, Cerberus Capital, will be attacked because they made a significant profit when they finally exited their 2010 investment 10 years later. No one wants to remember that they bought six failing hospitals in Massachusetts and rejuvenated them. Without that purchase, there was a good chance they would have been shuttered. Medical Properties Trust will be attacked because its leases ended up being too expensive, even though it helped Steward grow, took an equity interest in the company and provided new capital.  Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, and then COVID hit, and... Read More »
Here We Go Again With The Post

Here We Go Again With The Post

The Washington Post is on the attack again, publishing a story last Friday on the overuse of 911 calls when a resident falls in assisted living or independent living, and how some towns are starting to charge seniors housing communities a fee for each 911 visit of this sort. Apparently, in some towns these 911 “fall” calls have been rising. If we were living in a non-litigious world, perhaps the seniors housing communities would not feel as if they had to call. In some states, it is required if the resident can’t get up on their own. I used to live next door to a small independent living community that we called an unlicensed assisted living building because it had small units, mostly... Read More »
Brookdale Making Progress, but Is It Enough?

More Shareholder Activism

Fresh from its success in getting two people voted onto the Ventas Board of Directors, Land & Buildings is at it again, this time with National Health Investors. Like all the REITs, NHI’s managers and tenants had their share of problems during the pandemic. Who didn’t? Most of these issues are behind it, but the REIT could be in even stronger financial shape with just a few changes, which is what L&B wants to do. National Health Investors went public in 1991 and has had a long-term relationship with publicly traded National HealthCare Corporation (NHC), which leases several of its nursing homes from NHI. These 35 nursing facilities provide a solid foundation for NHI, and NHC has... Read More »