• 60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: What Do People Really Think?

    In our Second Quarter 2025 investment webinar, moderator Ben Swett asked our audience of a few hundred what they thought about several important topics. Overwhelmingly, 82% of the attendees indicated they would rather buy than build in today’s market, which was surprising given two facts. One, the current inventory is aging and showing it, and... Read More »
  • Publicly Traded Healthcare REIT Acquires in Minnesota

    Lee & Associates’ Senior Housing team, led by Robert Black, represented a Scottsdale, Arizona-based developer in the sale of a Class-A seniors housing community in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Developed by the seller in 2019, the building features 101 independent living, assisted living and memory care units.  There was strong interest in the... Read More »
  • Ivy Healthcare Group Divests to Regional Owner/Operator

    Engaged by Ivy Healthcare Group, Evans Senior Investments facilitated the sale of a skilled nursing facility in Gastonia, North Carolina. Ivy at Gastonia comprises 50 beds and has a strong operational foundation. ESI secured a regional owner/operator as the buyer. The incoming operator is expected to benefit from a favorable reimbursement... Read More »
  • Denver-Based Owner/Operator Grows in Colorado

    Blueprint represented a court-appointed receiver in the sale of a seniors housing portfolio in the Grand Junction, Colorado MSA. The portfolio comprised two assisted living communities with around 50 units, and a standalone memory care community built in the mid-1990s with around 20 units. The portfolio was 65% occupied and breaking even on a... Read More »
  • Ohio Skilled Nursing Facility Changes Hands

    Connor Doherty and Ryan Kelly of Blueprint closed the sale of a 61-bed skilled nursing facility located southeast of Columbus, Ohio. While the facility was experiencing operational challenges at the time of marketing, it had a long-standing reputation for providing quality care to the community. Blueprint’s marketing process emphasized the... Read More »
The Ensign Group to Split Up

The Ensign Group to Split Up

Talk about a surprise move. The Ensign Group announced that it will be spinning out its home health and hospice business and substantially all of its senior living operations, plus its mobile diagnostic and clinical lab operations, into a separate publicly traded company called The Pennant Group. Ensign will become a stand-alone skilled nursing company but will also continue to own the real estate of 28 of the senior living communities and lease them to Pennant. The remaining 23 senior living properties are leased from third parties. While it makes sense for Ensign to want to focus just on skilled nursing because the business is getting increasingly complex, we are not sure why they want... Read More »
Meridian Moves into Central California Communities

Meridian Moves into Central California Communities

Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV found a new operator in Meridian Senior Living for three of its northern California communities. Acquired as part of a five-property portfolio acquisition in June 2017 from Nazareth Healthcare, these communities were then leased to Colonial Oaks under a 15-year absolute net lease with annual rent escalators of 6.5% after the first year and 2.5% thereafter. They were 100% occupied at the time and featured a mix of assisted living and memory care services in Menlo Park (45 MC beds), Sacramento (160 AL and MC beds) and Fairfield (102 MC beds). Originally, there was a second tranche of facilities supposed to be acquired in the 2017 deal, but Griffin-American... Read More »
HCP Is Making Moves

HCP Is Making Moves

HCP, Inc. caused a stir this month with a couple of large acquisitions totaling $558 million. The industry hasn’t seen that kind of large-scale activity in some time, as many of the REITs seemed to be biding their time, at least for big acquisitions. Occupancy woes, overdevelopment and higher labor costs seemed to be some of the causes for that added caution. HCP themselves were some of the biggest sellers recently, having sold $1.5 billion in seniors housing assets over the past five quarters. But now, HCP is jumping back into the seniors housing M&A pool with a couple of acquisitions of new, high-quality assets. The properties’ ages should help assuage some of those occupancy... Read More »
CareTrust REIT Doubles Down in Texas

CareTrust REIT Doubles Down in Texas

CareTrust REIT just keeps on growing, adding its 212th net-leased property to its portfolio. The target, a 118-bed skilled nursing facility in Dallas, Texas, sold for approximately $10.0 million, or about $84,750 per bed, inclusive of transaction costs. The land it sits on is subject to a long-term ground lease in favor of the Dallas Housing Authority. CareTrust funded the deal with cash on hand, and leased the facility to Next Gen P, LLC under a master lease with an initial lease term of 15 years, two five-year renewal options and CPI-based rent escalators. The deal follows CareTrust’s larger acquisition of 12 former Senior Care Centers skilled nursing facilities in Texas and Louisiana... Read More »
Oxford Finance Funds Sterling Senior Care Acquisition

Oxford Finance Funds Sterling Senior Care Acquisition

Maryland-based operator of senior care facilities across the Mid-Atlantic, Sterling Senior Care, acquired another Maryland skilled nursing facility, following its 2018 acquisition of a 129-bed Boonsboro facility for $15.55 million. The most recent transaction featured a 129-bed facility in Belkamp, located in northeast Maryland. To fund the deal, Sterling turned to Oxford Finance, which closed a term loan and a revolving line of credit for the company. With that financial flexibility going forward, we expect to hear of more acquisitions from Sterling Senior Care. Read More »
Ensign Adds Arizona and California Campuses

Ensign Adds Arizona and California Campuses

The Ensign Group added to its expanding portfolio with two large acquisitions in Arizona and California. First, the company purchased two large senior care campuses in Peoria and Mesa, both in the Phoenix MSA. The Peoria campus includes a 150-bed skilled nursing facility and a 70-unit independent living community, while the Mesa property features a 58-bed SNF and a senior living community with 88 independent living and 18 assisted living units. They were both previously operated by a faith-based not-for-profit, so we imagine some expense controls are in store. Ensign’s Arizona-based subsidiary Bandera Healthcare will take over operations. Then, to California, where Ensign acquired the... Read More »
Flashback Friday: The Seniors Housing Development Boom Begins

Flashback Friday: The Seniors Housing Development Boom Begins

Seven years ago, this month, the first signs of life in the seniors housing development market showed themselves after a barren few years following the depths of the Great Recession. We’re sure none of you want to get back in the recession mindset, but the myriad economic issues facing the industry meant that a construction comeback was by no means a sure thing that soon into the recovery. We detailed some of those issues too in the May issue of The SeniorCare Investor: “After all, what lender would want to take on the risk of the unknown in an uncertain economy with a still weak housing market? In addition, feasibility studies may have  been  able  to  pinpoint  market demand six years... Read More »
Clousing and Byrne Close Pair of Peach State Sales

Clousing and Byrne Close Pair of Peach State Sales

Senior Living Investment Brokerage’s Bradley Clousing and Patrick Byrne sold a pair of personal care facilities in the Peach State. Both communities were losing money, largely as a result of heavy competition. It didn’t help that they were both built in the late-1990s, which is now considered to be old. The seller, MedProperties, even invested in updates over the years, but in the end decided to exit the operational outliers. The first transaction featured a 64-unit assisted living/memory care community in Sandy Springs, an affluent suburb north of Atlanta, a notoriously overdeveloped market. MedProperties had acquired the community in 2012 for $6.6 million when it was operating at a 21%... Read More »
Dwight Capital Provides Two Bridge Loans

Dwight Capital Provides Two Bridge Loans

Dwight Capital closed a couple of bridge loans for skilled nursing clients in the Midwest. First up, the firm arranged a $3.77 million loan for a senior care facility in Beloit, Kansas. Built in multiple stages from 1971 to 2004, the campus includes 110 units and 116 beds of assisted living and skilled nursing. Then, in Gary, Indiana, Dwight Capital secured a $4.02 million bridge loan for a 100-bed SNF to pay off existing bank and partnership debt. It was originally built in 1969 and renovated in between 1973 and 1980. Perhaps another renovation is in store? Read More »
HJ Sims In It for the Long Haul

HJ Sims In It for the Long Haul

When a CCRC in Norfolk, Virginia wanted to launch a major $200 million expansion of its campus, it turned to its long-time partner HJ Sims to finance the project. The two go way back (to the early 2000s), with Sims structuring, placing or underwriting the initial seed capital transaction, the first phase of development financing, a refinancing in 2014 and finally, the current development financing. This transaction saw Sims arrange a $100 million draw-down bank loan, coordinating with SunTrust Bank and TD Bank. SunTrust served as administrative agent and provided $65 million of the financing. Then, Sims underwrote $101.1 million of fixed-rate bonds, resulting in over $500,000 in savings on... Read More »