SNFs, Medicaid and Healthcare Reform
Whether the House bill, the Senate bill, or anything that may come out of reconciliation, Medicaid reimbursement for SNFs is going to get squeezed. It is amazing the uproar, first over the House healthcare reform bill, and now the Senate bill. I have to admit, like Nancy Pelosi, I have not read either bill, and I also prefer to wait until something actually becomes law to see what it says. Will the ACA replacement cut Medicaid spending over 10 years by $834 billion in the House bill, or $772 billion in the Senate bill? Will the ranks of the uninsured grow by 23 million by 2026, or 22 million? Will the average skilled nursing facility lose $600,000 in annual Medicaid reimbursement under the... Read More »Capitol Seniors Housing Builds Its Portfolio
Washington, D.C.-based Capitol Seniors Housing headed up the coast to build a brand-new assisted living/memory care community in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, an affluent suburb of New York City. The firm utilized an existing operating partner, Chelsea Senior Living, which already operates 10 senior living communities in the Mid-Atlantic on behalf of CSH, to third-party manage the new 85-unit community. To finance the project, Aron Will of CBRE arranged a $16.75 million, non-recourse loan with a floating-rate term from a regional bank. The five-year term includes 48 months of interest only. Construction cost is estimated at $29.3 million, or about $345,000 per unit. That is $100,000 per unit... Read More »Ensign Expands Into Texas and Wisconsin
The Ensign Group boosted its position in two markets with the acquisition of five assisted living communities previously operated by Brookdale Senior Living. First, in Texas, where the company already owns nearly fifty properties, Ensign acquired two 37-unit assisted living communities located in the towns of Lancaster (Dallas MSA) and Paris (rural east Texas). Lately, Ensign has only acquired skilled nursing facilities in the state: one San Antonio SNF in February 2017 and two others previously owned by National Health Investors in April 2016, to name a couple. So, while Ensign may have veered slightly from its recent Texas strategy with those two communities, the company doubled down in... Read More »
The Consistency of Skilled Nursing Facility Expense Ratios
Just like the average cap rate, the average expense ratio in the skilled nursing market for facilities sold has been very consistent. For the past five years, it has had a low of 88.2% and a high of 88.7%, for a very small 50 basis point spread, according to the 2017 Senior Care Acquisition Report. It was 88.5% in 2015 and 88.6% in 2016, just to show the consistency. Obviously, this excludes expenses such as interest, depreciation, amortization, taxes and rent. When these are all included, it is clear to see why the skilled nursing industry complains to their elected representatives as well as CMS that it is difficult to make money. And future cuts to Medicaid (as promised by both the... Read More »
Seniors Find New Home In Former Hotel
During this construction boom in seniors housing, developers are getting creative with where to build their communities. Although the majority of senior care communities are purpose-built, ground-up developments, some developers are taking advantage of existing buildings (like medical office buildings or hotels) that may not have been built for senior care but could be converted to house seniors. Hotels, one would assume, are especially suitable for conversion, with each room already having a bathroom. So, when Bruckal Development saw a need for private pay seniors housing in north Phoenix, Arizona, the firm decided to buy a 126-bed, four-story hotel and reconfigure it into a 119-unit... Read More »
All Business For Berkadia
The closings keep on coming from Berkadia, which recently facilitated two Freddie Mac financings and a bridge-to-HUD loan for several clients. Heidi Brunet and Chris Honn teamed up to arrange a 10-year, $30 million Freddie Mac loan to refinance a 120-unit independent living community in the Columbus, Ohio area. Recently built in 2015, the community was nearly stabilized, prompting the new client to pay off its existing construction debt with this transaction. Ms. Brunet also assisted an older senior living community to refinance with a 10-year, $44 million Freddie Mac loan. Located in South Florida, the property consists of four buildings with 268 independent living and 55 assisted living... Read More »Meridian Capital’s Latest Closing
The team at Meridian Capital Group popped over to the Bronx to close their latest transaction. Ari Adlerstein, Ari Dobkin, Josh Simpson and Isaac Lifshitz, all based in Meridian’s New York City headquarters, arranged a two-year $34 million loan to facilitate the acquisition of a 256-bed/120-unit assisted living community in the Bronx. The balance sheet loan, provided by a debt fund, is highly levered and will provide a large earn-out if the client achieves its operating goals. Built in the 1960s, the property was in the process of expanding its license, which was contingent on certain capital expenditure measures. Those plans went into effect post-closing, thanks to the team at... Read More »
An Unprecedented Bull Market For Senior Care Acquisitions
The end of June marks the seventh full year of this unprecedented bull market for seniors housing and care acquisitions. We have hit yet another milestone, as the end of June will represent the seventh consecutive year of a bull market for seniors housing and care acquisitions. Not all bulls, however, are created equal, as six months into 2017 it still does not seem as strong as 2015 and parts of 2016. There is certainly more caution in the air, and many people have been waiting for the correction in pricing that just never seems to come. Is the demographic tsunami so strong that a major correction will never happen? Unlikely. Many of us thought rising interest rates would put a damper on... Read More »Big Deals Are Back
Big seniors housing and care companies are back in vogue as acquisition targets, and they are all occurring with the specter of a Brookdale Senior Living buyout looming over the market. First came Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors’ $825 million acquisition of Sentio Healthcare Properties and its portfolio of 34 seniors housing and medical office properties. Then, we learned of Sabra Health Care REIT and Care Capital Properties’ all-stock merger valued at nearly $4 billion. Now, in the midst of rumors that Brookdale is in exclusive talks with a Chinese investor (Zhonghong Zhuoye Group) for a potential sale valued at $3.0 billion, we learned of another major deal in the works. Columbia... Read More »
A Couple of Acquisition Loans From Harborview Capital Partners
Harborview Capital Partners has been in the business of financing large acquisitions of senior care properties lately. Just last month, the firm arranged the sale and $37.4 million in HUD financing for a senior living portfolio in Arizona, and then days later, Harborview also sold a skilled nursing portfolio in Ohio and arranged a $20.7 million bridge loan to finance the deal. The team of Eli and Jonathan Kutner continued this impressive form in arranging a $20.71 million bridge loan to fund the acquisition of a skilled nursing facility in Westchester, New York (New York City MSA). The loan, provided by a national lender, featured a LIBOR-based rate and a three-year, interest-only term. In... Read More »Schedule a demo
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