• Regional Owner/Operator Enters New State

    A regional owner/operator looking to enter the state of Indiana acquired Smith Farms Manor, an independent living community in Auburn, about 30 miles south of the Michigan border. Built in 1998, the community features 51 units and is well maintained. It sits on an attractive four-acre campus down the street from Parkview DeKalb Hospital and off... Read More »
  • Skilled Nursing Portfolio Gets New Operator

    Evans Senior Investments secured a new lease for a skilled nursing portfolio in Tennessee on behalf of an institutional owner. The portfolio features four assets and was operating below 70% occupancy with margins under 10%. Despite that performance, ESI secured a lease $3 million above in-place cash flow, reflecting the operational upside that... Read More »
  • Seniors Housing and Care M&A Remains Elevated in Q1:26

    The number of publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions in the first quarter of 2026 reached 231 deals, based on new acquisition data from LevinPro LTC. This represents a 19.8% decrease from the 288 transactions disclosed in the fourth quarter of 2025, but a 25.5% increase from the 184 deals in Q1:25.   “It was always going... Read More »
  • Clarion Acquires Again in Colorado

    Two years after opening a 160-unit seniors housing community in Centennial, Colorado (Denver MSA), MorningStar Senior Living announced an expanding relationship with Clarion Partners, a leading real estate investment company and specialty investment manager of Franklin Templeton, in its acquisition of MorningStar at Holly Park. The community... Read More »
  • Brookdale’s Summer Test Ahead

    Brookdale Senior Living reported its March occupancy results, and it unfortunately took another step in the wrong direction. We will get a better read when peers report first-quarter results and when NIC MAP releases its next tranche of occupancy data, but at this point, it seems as though Brookdale will need a particularly strong performance... Read More »
Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

As we are now in full swing of the flu (and COVID) season, it is normal to expect that occupancy levels nationwide would decline slightly even though the seniors housing industry continues on its operational upswing. This is exactly what happened at Brookdale Senior Living. Consolidated weighted average occupancy in December declined sequentially by 20 basis points to 79.3%. This compares with 79.2% in September. In slightly better news, occupancy at the end of December was 80.5%, up 10 basis points from November, but still down 30 basis points from October and matching September’s level. However, Brookdale has now posted five straight months of month-end census above 80%, and barring any... Read More »
60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: First off, Happy New Year Everyone.

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 William Kole. All we have heard about for years, even decades, is the growth in the 80+ and 85+ population and what it will do for the seniors housing industry. This book is about the 100+ population, called centenarians, and super-centenarians, those who have attained 110 years and older. The centenarian group is the fastest growing age cohort,... Read More »
Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

Brookdale and Ventas, a Win-Win

Just weeks after Brookdale Senior Living walked away from its lease renewal with Ventas covering some 120 communities, the two companies came to an agreement that appears to be a win-win for both.  Brookdale will continue to lease 65 communities which average about 62 units each and represent 40% of the units in the original master lease. The initial cash rent on these will increase by 38% and will now be $64 million with 3% annual escalators. But for 2025, Brookdale will pay the contractual rent of $48 million on these. For the remainder, 44 communities will go into the Ventas SHOP portfolio with new operators, to be determined later. Annualized NOI for these after a 5% management... Read More »
Who Wins in Class Action Staffing Litigation

Who Wins in Class Action Staffing Litigation

The American Seniors Housing Association and Hanson Bridgett just came out with an “Industry Brief” on the settlement of a class action lawsuit called Heredia v. Sunrise Senior Living. The settlement was approved on December 3, but the lawsuit had been winding its way through the courts since 2017. Apparently, for these kinds of staffing lawsuits this is the longest time period recorded. The basis of the class action lawsuit was allegations of understaffing, with staffing levels unrelated to the care needs of residents, as well as allegations that representations by owners/operators to residents and prospective residents that sufficient staffing was in place were misleading. While we have... Read More »
60 Seconds with Swett: Cap Rates Coming Down?

60 Seconds with Swett: Cap Rates Coming Down?

Cap rate data has been difficult to measure in the last couple of years, due to a fast-changing capital costs environment, a relatively fast-changing operating environment and, frankly, a relative absence of true “cap rate deals” where the buyer was valuing the trailing set of financials, without any funny business. Now, we are seeing more “cap rate deals” and look forward to providing our industry averages, broken out by property type, quality, age and performance in our next Senior Care Acquisition Report.  Anecdotally, what we are hearing is that cap rates are compressing slightly, but in the grand scheme of things, are staying relatively high relative to the record (and some may say... Read More »
Brookdale’s December 2024 Occupancy Drops

Brookdale Senior Living Occupancy Sends Mixed Signals

Perhaps when Brookdale Senior Living can better focus on a smaller number of properties when its lease for 120 communities with Ventas ends at the end of next year, they will be able to push occupancy on the remaining portfolio. The company’s size will shrink by nearly 20% if the full lease termination goes through as disclosed last week, and we have to imagine that the Ventas properties require a lot of management time. Meanwhile, the company reported November’s occupancy, and while there was some good news, census levels still disappointed us at this point in the recovery from the pandemic. Investors, however, differed from our assessment, sending the share price up by 7.5% before ending... Read More »