• Blueprint Closes Two Texas Portfolio Transactions

    During the NIC Fall conference in Austin, Blueprint announced a couple of portfolio transactions in Texas. First, Amy Sitzman and Giancarlo Riso facilitated the sale of five skilled nursing facilities located throughout the Texas Hill Country and Houston. All five facilities are within four hours of each other, offering scale and operational... Read More »
  • SLIB Handles Minnesota Receivership Sale

    A senior care campus in Pine Island, Minnesota, with some operational issues in the past has found a new owner thanks to Jake Anderson, Dan Geraghty and Ryan Saul of Senior Living Investment Brokerage. Set on 6.8 acres, the campus includes Pine Haven with 70 skilled nursing beds and Evergreen featuring 24 assisted living units. Pine Haven was... Read More »
  • PACS CFO Resigns

    PACS Group saw another potential setback to its public image, announcing that its CFO Derick Apt resigned on September 2 after it was determined that he had accepted a series of high-value items from individuals associated with a group of related entities with which PACS does business. The company was in the middle of its previously disclosed... Read More »
  • Publicly Traded REIT Acquires in Austin

    Not far from the NIC venue in Austin, Berkadia closed the sale of Village on the Park Onion Creek, a 124-unit independent and assisted living community located in an Austin suburb. Cody Tremper, Mike Garbers, Ross Sanders and Dave Fasano closed the deal on behalf of Bridgewood Property Company, a Houston-based developer, owner and operator and... Read More »
  • Long-Term Owner/Operator Divests in Rural Utah

    Evans Senior Investments facilitated the sale of Heirloom Inn, a 67-unit assisted living community in Price, Utah. The seller, which developed the community over 20 years ago, was independent owner/operator Shauna O’Brien. At the time of sale, the property was performing well albeit with opportunities for expense management and revenue growth.... Read More »
The Ensign Group Reports Another Solid Quarter

The Ensign Group Reports Another Solid Quarter

The Ensign Group did not disappoint yet again with its latest quarterly results. The senior care provider reported an increase in GAAP diluted earnings per share of $3.42 for 2021, an increase of 11.8% over the prior year, while adjusted EPS rose 16.3% year over year to a record-high $3.64. Consolidated GAAP revenues increased by 9.5% to $2.6 billion in 2021, with GAAP net income reaching $194.7 million for the year, an increase of 14.2% compared with 2020. Those are all healthy increases in a year of numerous operational headwinds, with large companies especially susceptible to high employee turnover and stagnant census. That is the beauty of the decentralized operating model that Ensign... Read More »
Brookdale Month-End Occupancy Falls in November

Brookdale Month-End Occupancy Falls in November

The brevity of Brookdale Senior Living’s occupancy update said a lot: there was not much good news to report. After eight consecutive months of increases, month-end occupancy decreased by 20 basis points from 74.5% in October to 74.3% in November. There could be numerous reasons for this, from the Omicron variant to the onset of the flu season to a staffing shortage, but demand clearly did not overcome these factors in the month of November. And these headwinds are not getting better anytime soon. Brookdale expects to continue publishing monthly occupancy through December 2021 reporting, so we could learn whether this decline is a blip or a trend.  Brookdale did... Read More »
NIC Data Shows Slow Occupancy Recovery

NIC Data Shows Slow Occupancy Recovery

According to most recent aggregated NIC data, occupancy in the third quarter rose to 80.1%, after having stagnated in the previous two quarters at 78.7%. It’s great to see this positive movement, but we are still a long way away from pre-pandemic occupancy levels, and we would have hoped to see more growth heading into the holiday and flu season. This average is also not an indicator of how other institutional operators and REITs are performing, or the industry as a whole, but there are just no other comprehensive sector-wide statistics out there. As we reported last month, Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. disclosed a 716-basis point increase in occupancy between February and July 2021. Senior... Read More »
Brookdale Senior Living Issues Occupancy Update

Brookdale Senior Living Issues Occupancy Update

Brookdale Senior Living issued an occupancy update, and the results were positive, but a little muted. The good news is that the company saw occupancy grow 50 basis points from July to August after an 80-basis point increase from June to July. Brookdale does expect another sequential monthly occupancy gain in September 2021, but likely a more moderated rate. The company attributed this to potential residents and their families becoming more cautious or temporarily delaying their decision to move into seniors housing communities in certain areas, as a result of the Delta variant. That shouldn’t surprise many. As of September 22, 2021, approximately 97% of Brookdale’s communities... Read More »
Several Companies Report August Occupancy Gains

Several Companies Report August Occupancy Gains

Several companies have released occupancy updates for the month of August, and there were some mixed results. However, for the most part, these top players reported large basis-point gains over several months, and even between July and August. This consistency among businesses bodes well for a return to normalcy in the skilled nursing and seniors housing industries. After announcing their agreement to provide Recovery Centers of America with a $325 million mortgage loan this week, Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc. reported occupancy gains across several of their portfolios. Among their top eight skilled nursing operators, they have seen a 554-basis point increase between late December 2020 to... Read More »
Brookdale Month-End Occupancy Falls in November

Brookdale Senior Living Census Jumps

The census problems at Brookdale Senior Living definitely bottomed out late in the winter of this year. Weighted average occupancy in both February and March was 69.4%, a level at which it is tough to make money. But that has increased by 180 basis points in June to 71.2%, still a low number but moving in the right direction. And it has increased for three straight months at a time when historically the industry sees little occupancy gains.  Occupancy levels at the end of each month have done even better. These bottomed out in February at 70.1% and increased for four straight months, ended June at 72.6% for a 250-basis point increase in four months. Again, this is a time... Read More »