• Grace Management Adds Five Ventas Communities

    Grace Management expanded its relationship with Ventas, adding five seniors housing communities owned by the REIT to its operating portfolio. The communities were previously managed under a triple-net lease structure. They include Brookdale Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, Brookdale Northbrook in Northbrook, Illinois, Brookdale Springs Mesa... Read More »
  • Seller Boosts Census Ahead of Sale to JV

    Senwell Senior Investment Advisors sold Rose Hill Retirement Community, a 66-unit, 87-bed assisted living community in Marion, North Carolina. Originally built as a hospital, Rose Hill has been transformed by the seller over the past two decades into a senior care community. After a previous attempt to sell the community was unsuccessful,... Read More »
  • Joint Venture Buys Orange County Community

    A high-end seniors housing community in Orange County sold with the help of CBRE National Senior Housing. Aron Will and John Sweeny represented the joint venture seller in the deal, while Will and Matthew Kuronen arranged acquisition financing from a national bank. The loan came with a four-year term, a full term of interest only and a floating... Read More »
  • Developer Secures Construction Financing

    JLL Capital Markets arranged a $47 million construction financing for The Arbella at Blue Hills, a 164-unit, active adult community to be developed in Bloomfield, Connecticut. JLL worked on behalf of the developer, The United Group of Companies, Inc. (United Group) to secure the construction loan through Liberty Bank of Middletown, Connecticut.... Read More »
  • Midwest-Based Operator Refinances AL/MC Communities

    MONTICELLOAM, LLC, along with firm affiliates, provided a $28.5 million senior bridge financing for two Midwest seniors housing communities. The financing was originated by Karina Davydov, Senior Managing Director, Originations. The sponsor, a Midwest-based operator with a portfolio of over 40 seniors housing and healthcare properties and a... Read More »

Average AL price deflates

Have we already seen the mountaintop when it comes to the average price per unit for assisted living sales? After four straight four-quarter periods of an average AL price per unit above $188,500 (topping out at $191,300 per unit in the four quarters ending Q3:14), that average has fallen to $183,600 per unit in the four quarters ending Q3:15. Now, to put that in perspective, the next highest yearly average was in 2012 with $164,000 per unit, so we have by no means plummeted from the peak (no bubble has burst either). But what may be true is that prices may have started falling back to earth a bit, and perhaps the highest quality portfolio sales have, for the most part, already taken... Read More »

Third quarter posts record M&A results

There has never been a busier third quarter for mergers and acquisitions in the history of the seniors housing and care market. In Q3:15, there were a total of 87 publicly announced transactions (including both U.S. deals and a few Canadian deals), a 23% increase over the Q2:15 and a 2% increase over Q3:14. Keep in mind that the NIC Conference began at the end of the third quarter, so we have to assume that press releases on September 30 closings were delayed. The catch is that while the number of transactions has increased, the Q3:15 dollar volume of $4.1 billion is significantly down from last year’s third quarter total of $9.7 billion, a 58% drop. For more details on the third quarter... Read More »

Seniors Housing: Build or Buy?

In this strong seniors housing acquisition market, when does it make sense to build a brand new community or buy an “A” quality community? Based on seniors housing construction projects since 2013 (which includes independent, assisted living and memory care, or some combination of the three), the average cost to build a new project is approximately $209,000 per unit. New construction, of course, comes with certain benefits. You will have a brand-new community with all the bells and whistles that can help attract attention. But you then have to fill it up, staff it and deal with the increasingly potential risk of a competitor opening up down the street. And to buy a stabilized, “A” level... Read More »

A lot of building, but what’s the cost?

Taking a look at the NIC MAP® Construction Monitor as of Q2:15, which examines seniors housing construction in the Top 99 MSAs, we noticed on the AL side there were 22 MSAs with a construction vs. inventory ratio above 10%. If that doesn’t show a frothy development market, then what does? But, what is the cost to build in some of those MSAs? The Sarasota market, which has gotten a good amount of attention for its development pace, has eight assisted living properties under construction, and 893 units, representing a construction vs. inventory ratio of 30.7%. According to our data, which tracks senior living construction projects since 2013, majority-AL communities in the Sarasota market... Read More »

SNF cap rates fall

The average price paid for skilled nursing facilities has largely leveled off at around $75,000 per bed, coming to rest at $74,100 per bed for the four quarters ending Q2:15, down from $76,600 per unit in 2014. But while prices have stayed largely the same, the average cap rate fell 40 basis points to 12.0%, a new record low. In the past 14 years (looking at calendar years), the previous record-low came at the top of the previous bull market in 2007 at 12.1%. And the rate at which the average cap rate has fallen is also stark, falling 100 basis points from 2013’s average. But if the overall trend this year has been that the market is cooling down from an especially frothy 2014, why are cap... Read More »

As cap rates rise, AL prices stay

Last week, we wrote that while the average price per unit for IL communities fell by over $30,000 from the calendar year 2014 to the four quarters ending Q2:15, the average cap rate remained at 7.4%. Meanwhile, the inverse was true for the assisted living market. The average price per unit for AL communities rose slightly from $188,700 to $189,500, just a 0.4% change, over the same period, but the average cap rate rose 15 basis points from 7.75% in 2014 to 7.9% in the four quarters ending Q2:15. This could partially be explained by the fact that the IL market can be more mercurial than the AL market, as there is a more constant and stable need for assisted living. But to explain the rise... Read More »