• 60 Seconds with Swett: The Great Debates of Senior Care

    Next week for our Second Quarter Investor Call, sponsored by Ziegler, we’ll be trying something different that is sure to be both entertaining and useful for our audience of operators, investors, brokers, lenders and everyone else. We’ll be tackling The Great Debates of Senior Care, covering some of the most important issues facing the industry.... Read More »
  • Thank You Ortelius?

    Brookdale Senior Living just reported June occupancy, and the increases were much better than we expected for a second quarter, which historically has been a mixed bag for the industry. Let’s just say, we were impressed. June’s same-community weighted average occupancy was 81.1%, up 220 basis points year over year and up 50 basis points... Read More »
  • SLIB Sells SNF in New Jersey

    Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage got a skilled nursing sale in New Jersey over the finish line after survey issues caused a buyer switch-up. Built in 1980, Medford Care Center is located in the town of Medford (about an hour east of Philadelphia) and features 180 beds on an 11-acre campus. Operations were not strong, and the... Read More »
  • Carnegie Capital Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary with Texas Portfolio Deal

    Carnegie Capital, the national seniors housing debt brokerage founded and run by JD Stettin and David Farhadian, celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a $124 million, or $117,100 per bed, portfolio acquisition transaction. Carnegie provided a combination of advisory work and debt placement for the nine-skilled nursing facility portfolio with... Read More »
  • 12 Oaks Senior Living Appoints New CFO

    12 Oaks Senior Living appointed Elliott Westerman as CFO, effective immediately. Westerman has more than two decades of leadership experience across senior living, healthcare, and real estate sectors. As CFO, Westerman will oversee all aspects of financial management, including financial planning and analysis, capital structure strategy,... Read More »
CareTrust REIT Acquires Again in California

CareTrust REIT Acquires Again in California

A little over a month after CareTrust REIT first acquired four CCRCs in California, then a 150-bed skilled nursing facility in Santa Barbara, the company has made another Golden State purchase. The latest deal features a 123-bed skilled nursing facility located adjacent to the El Centro Regional Medical Center in El  Centro (Imperial County). The seller was a private individual who had owned the facility for more than 20 years. They experienced high staff turnover and occupancy decline as a result of the pandemic and decided to seek a sale. The seller had fallen out of contract with a previous buyer but was still highly motivated to exit.  That led to San Diego-based Bayshire Senior... Read More »
Healthpeak Properties Nears Seniors Housing Exit

Healthpeak Properties Nears Seniors Housing Exit

Healthpeak Properties has nearly completed its exit from the rental seniors housing business, selling another $1 billion of assets in the first quarter of 2021, according to its latest earnings release. This comes after approximately $2.5 billion of seniors housing dispositions in the fourth quarter of 2020, so they are clearly antsy to get out.   The latest tranche of divestments included 12 properties in PEAK’s SHOP portfolio operated by Oakmont Senior Living and totaling 1,043 units. At $564 million, or $540,750 per unit, it represents the largest deal of the quarter. And considering Healthpeak’s haste to get out, commanding that sort of per-unit... Read More »
Good Vaccination News

Good Vaccination News

Connecticut takes the lead in vaccination rates, but senior care staffers need to get on board. I just heard that my home state, Connecticut, is number one in the country with more than 50% of those eligible, 16 and over, having been vaccinated. In my town, we are now well over 70%, and I suspect will hit 80% or more by the end of May. This is what we need. I have been fully vaccinated for over a month now, and it is quite a liberating feeling. Not that I was fearful about going anywhere pre-vaccination, but it does make you feel a little more empowered. And, I will be going to my first conference in late May. Can’t wait, although I could do without the plane ride. So, obnoxious as I can... Read More »
Senior Living Investment Brokerage Ends April With Three SNF Sales

Senior Living Investment Brokerage Ends April With Three SNF Sales

Senior care M&A activity may be tepid right now, but Senior Living Investment Brokerage ended April with a bang, announcing several skilled nursing closings and several seniors housing ones too. We’ll start with the skilled nursing sales, and you can read about the seniors housing transactions here.  Brad Clousing and Matthew Alley kicked it off with the sale of a 170-bed skilled nursing facility in Mobile, Alabama. Built in 1968 and 1982, the facility was subject to a long-term ground lease with the adjacent hospital. An entire floor with over 30 beds was out of service, but the facility was just around 60% occupied at the time of the sale and historically operated between that mark... Read More »
SLIB Arranges Three Seniors Housing Transactions

SLIB Arranges Three Seniors Housing Transactions

Bradley Clousing and Matthew Alley of Senior Living Investment Brokerage continued the firm’s impressive run into the seniors housing M&A market (read about their skilled nursing deals here), selling a 170-unit independent living community in Dallas, Texas. The property actually traded at the end of 2020, with CareTrust REIT (NASDAQ: CTRE) selling to Valstone Partners. Built in 1987 and thoroughly renovated in 2013 with additional capital improvements made in 2016, CareTrust had previously converted the remaining assisted living units to independent living.   Occupancy had declined as a result, but it was steadily improving to the low-80s with a... Read More »
Welltower Acquires Philly-Area Community

Welltower Acquires Philly-Area Community

The Newmark team was busy in the Mid-Atlantic last month, having earlier closed the sale of a seniors housing community in Chesapeake, Virginia (Virginia Beach MSA). Newmark also headed up the coast to sell a 76-unit assisted living/memory care community in a suburb of Philadelphia.   A private equity fund had purchased the property several years before but experienced slightly declining census before the pandemic caused occupancy to drop to 71%. Built in 2013, the community was bringing in no positive NOI at the time of the sale to Welltower for a purchase price of $19.5 million, or $256,600 per unit. Sunrise Senior Living will take over... Read More »
American Senior Communities Acquires Terre Haute Community

American Senior Communities Acquires Terre Haute Community

Dan Revie and Tedd Van Gorden of Ziegler handled Bethesda Senior Living Communities’ sale of its community of 20 years in Terre Haute, Indiana, to the largest senior care operator in that state, American Senior Communities. In April 2019, ownership agreed to discontinue its memory care units for the next two years to resolve a civil complaint filed by the Indiana State Department of Health following the death of a memory care resident. According to the new community website, there are still no memory care services. No price was disclosed in the ownership transition.  Read More »
HHC Finance Wraps Up April HUD Activity

HHC Finance Wraps Up April HUD Activity

Housing & Healthcare Finance (HHC Finance) is also continuing to take advantage of historically low interest rates by arranging HUD refinances for its clients. Recently, the company secured three loans totaling more than $33 million for three senior care facilities. You can read about that deal here.   Then, HHC Finance wrapped up its April activity with $67 million of HUD loans closed for a portfolio of six skilled nursing facilities in Georgia. Built from 1968 to 1993, the facilities all total 620 beds. HHC Finance also closed an $18 million loan modification for an Illinois SNF. All in a month’s work.  Read More »
Ensign Exceeds Expectations, Yet Again

Ensign Exceeds Expectations, Yet Again

What’s in the water in San Juan Capistrano? The Ensign Group, which is based in the California town, just reported another impressive quarter with GAAP diluted record earnings per share of $0.86. That is an increase of 17.8% over the prior-year quarter. That excludes any revenues from the CARES Act Provider Relief Funds as well, so that improvement is the real deal. Given the success of the company’s decentralized structure, maybe we should be asking what’s in the water at each of Ensign’s properties.  Starting with occupancy, Ensign reported a 0.4% increase in its same store occupancy and a 1.6% increase in its transitional occupancy, both sequentially over the fourth quarter of 2020. For... Read More »
LTC Properties’ Quarter of Flux

LTC Properties’ Quarter of Flux

With its most recent earnings results out, LTC Properties reported a quarter of flux, transition and ongoing rent relief for its tenants. These can all certainly be good things for the company going forward, but we’re sure they would have liked to report some good operating news as well.   To start off, the REIT transitioned 11 assisted living communities previously leased to Senior Lifestyle to two new operators: Randall Residences, which is taking over six of them, and Encore Senior Living which took over the remaining five. This was not new news, as LTC announced the change in its fourth quarter earnings report in February. And the release of the other 12 properties could not come soon... Read More »
Merrill Commercial Real Estate Handles Two-Community Deal in California

Merrill Commercial Real Estate Handles Two-Community Deal in California

It took over a year, but Tyler Merrill of Merrill Commercial Real Estate successfully closed the sale of two assisted living communities in Redding, California. One of the communities in particular was hit hard by COVID-19, and occupancy dropped by a combined 20% across the two properties. Despite that, the same private equity buyer remained interested throughout the difficult year and kept to the same agreed-upon purchase price of $18 million, albeit with an approximate $1 million holdback in escrow until the new owner reaches pre-COVID NOI levels and 75% occupancy. Before the pandemic, the communities maintained around 88% occupancy, but there is a lot of upside in expense management.... Read More »