Retirement Unlimited President Gone
Last week, Retirement Unlimited Inc. (RUI), announced that its President, Doris-Ellie Sullivan, had stepped down “to pursue other opportunities.” That is usually a signal that the person did not leave without getting pushed out. Given what we heard about the poor performance of the company since its acquisition of Brandywine Living, we have to believe that it finally caught up to her. In late 2023, RUI purchased the Brandywine Living management company, which nearly doubled the number of communities operated by RUI to more than 70. Welltower (NYSE: WELL) owned the real estate of the Brandywine portfolio. Brandywine operated very high-end assisted living communities in top markets in New... Read More »
Brookdale Reports Highest Occupancy Since March 2021
While we would hope that seniors housing companies are reporting their highest occupancy levels since the bottom of the COVID market in March 2021, Brookdale Senior Living did it in pretty good fashion. Brookdale finally topped 80% in month-end occupancy for August, reaching 80.4%, or a 50 basis-point increase over July. It also represented a 110-basis point increase from a year ago. Weighted average occupancy reached 78.9% in August, a 30-basis point sequential increase and a 130-basis point increase year over year. We would expect solid census increases in the traditionally strong third quarter, so this was not a surprise. But they will have to maintain these improvements through the... Read More »
Insignia Divests Its Last US Senior Living Asset
Senior Living Investment Brokerage closed its third transaction for Insignia Senior Living this year, marking Insignia’s exit from its United States-based senior living operations. This exit allows insignia to focus on core geographic markets in Puerto Rico and Latin America. Built in 1996 and expanded in 2016, Tapestry House Assisted Living is a 94-unit assisted living community in Alpharetta, Georgia, that was built in two phases. The first phase was a 32-unit building. A pipe burst in December 2022 which resulted in flooding that damaged the building. The second phase was a 62-unit addition featuring apartments, physical therapy spaces and admin offices. The buyer is... Read More »
North Carolina Operator Acquires Family-Run Campus
Senwell Senior Investment Advisors closed two separate transactions in North Carolina and Florida. First, Senwell facilitated the sale of Silver Bluff, a senior care community in the Asheville, North Carolina MSA. The selected buyer is a well-known operator in North Carolina. With recent Medicaid rate increases, the campus is well-positioned for continued success under new ownership. Silver Bluff, which was in the seller’s family for decades, comprises 111 skilled nursing beds and 13 assisted living beds across 11.7 acres. Additionally, the campus offers 20 multi-unit assisted housing beds with services and is supported by ancillary properties such as residential duplexes and... Read More »
Senior Care Borrower Delays Agency Takeout
A Charleston, South Carolina-based owner/operator refinanced its seniors housing community in Morgantown, West Virginia, with the help of Live Oak Bank and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage. The bank closed a $39 million A/B uni-tranche loan, with Berkadia’s Seniors Housing & Healthcare Group funding the subordinate debt. The loan provides a bridge to agency debt and features a three-year term, 24 months of interest-only payments and no exit fee. Loan proceeds were used to retire existing bank debt along with partnership debt associated with the borrower’s 2021 purchase of the 175-unit, independent living, assisted living and memory care community. The community was stable... Read More »
Texas Gets New IL Community
The McFarlin Group just broke ground on its newest active adult community in Dallas, Texas, The Blake at Bent Tree. Featuring 200 units, the community is McFarlin’s 17th development in Dallas, and the company is based in the city, as well. The Blake was developed as an active adult community but offers a future buyer the ability to convert it to full-service independent living, if they choose. It will offer food, programming and laundry services, as well as amenities such as an outdoor BBQ and entertainment area, a golf simulator, outdoor pool with hot tub, pickleball court and professional concierge services, among others. Greystar will operate it under the Elate brand. Berkadia announced... Read More »60 Seconds with Swett: Rates Tumble on Eve of NIC
Two years ago at the NIC Fall Conference, the spike in interest rates, with the 10-Year Treasury rate heading above 3.5%, seemed to spook many investors, as deals started disintegrating left and right. That did not help to lift the mood of everyone there. Then, last year, on the eve of NIC, rates were again spiking, this time above 4.5% and heading to 5.0%. The Fed may have stopped its rate increases, but the costs of borrowing were not on the decline. At least there was a belief that the worst had passed, or at least we were in the middle of the worst. Again, did not lift the spirit of the thousands of NIC attendees, and thank you for the open bars. Now, we are approaching another... Read More »Spotlight on Senior Care M&A, Sixth Edition
The SeniorCare Investor is releasing a mid-year update of its key valuation statistics for the assisted living, independent living and skilled nursing sectors in its latest report: Spotlight on Senior Care M&A. Check out the average prices and cap rates, as well as analysis of industry headwinds and tailwinds. Read More »
NY Owner/Operator Expands in Tennessee
Blueprint facilitated the sale of a seniors housing community in Tennessee. Amy Sitzman, Kyle Hallion and Giancarlo Riso handled the transaction, marketing the asset to a combination of national, regional and local buyers. Purpose-built in the late-1990s, the community is in an attractive submarket of eastern Memphis and features 77 assisted living and memory care units. It has a long history of stable occupancy and margin, however, it experienced notable performance declines stemming from the impact of the pandemic, like many other communities. The selected bidder is a Buffalo, New York-based owner/operator seeking to expand its Southeastern geographic footprint. Blueprint worked... Read More »
