
Masonicare Feels The Squeeze
After 34 years of ownership, Masonicare is selling its large skilled nursing facility in Newtown, Connecticut, citing many of the issues facing small SNF operators today as the reasons for its exit. The Connecticut not-for-profit currently operates a senior living community, a CCRC, a health center and a number of home health agencies throughout the state. But the skilled nursing facility in Newtown, which included 154 SNF beds and 55 assisted living units, had been losing money in recent years caused by declining census, rising patient acuity and tightening reimbursement. Athena Health Care Systems, a Connecticut-based specialty care provider with about 45 skilled nursing facilities in... Read More »Ziegler Finances South Carolina CCRC Expansion
With its roots in antebellum South Carolina, a 178-unit CCRC in West Columbia is repositioning itself for the future with a planned expansion of its skilled nursing and assisted living services. The South Carolina Episcopal Home at Still Hopes has been in operation since 1975 and sits on a 43-acre site that includes a 107-year old mansion. It currently features 192 independent living units, 24 memory care units, 22 rehab beds and 40 skilled nursing beds, but the not-for-profit ownership wanted to construct a new health center that would house 48 skilled nursing beds (to replace the existing 40 beds) and 22 assisted living units. To fund the project, Ziegler closed a $39.33 million bond... Read More »
Housing & Healthcare Finance’s Flourishing Bridge Loan Program
The Capital Advisory Group at Housing & Healthcare Finance, led by Isaac Haas and Neil Gamms, has been hard at work closing over $100 million in bridge loans and a $7 million A/R line of credit in the last couple of months. The largest of the transactions took place in Ohio, where the firm closed a $57 million loan for a portfolio of five skilled nursing facilities and two assisted living communities totaling 854 beds. Four SNFs in Georgia with 560 beds received a couple of loans totaling $25.7 million. The firm also closed an $11 million loan for a 140-bed SNF in Pennsylvania, and three loans ranging from $3 million to $7 million for smaller facilities in Kentucky, Massachusetts and... Read More »Senior Care Stocks Remain in Doldrums
Seniors housing and care stocks remain in the dumps. There has been no Trump bump for them, as the rest of the market is up 16% since the beginning of this year. We should be only half as lucky. One would think that the skilled nursing dominated companies would have been the hardest hit, given all the talk of Medicaid block grants and census declines. But through mid-October, two of them have actually posted gains so far. Diversicare Healthcare Services is up 11% and The Ensign Group has eked out a small 2.2% gain so far this year. Meanwhile, National HealthCare Corporation has dropped nearly 15% this year, and Genesis HealthCare has plunged more than 75% and has settled in around $1.00... Read More »2017 HUD LEAN Rankings Are In
Total HUD LEAN loan volume hasn’t yet reached the heights of its FY2014, when the program closed over $4.2 billion in loans in 484 transactions, but it is getting there. In its FY2017, lenders closed just over $3.4 billion in 310 deals, up 20% from FY2016’s $2.84 billion volume (in 287 deals) and up 26% from FY2015’s $2.7 billion (in 291 deals). A total of 33 lenders closed at least one transaction, with Lancaster Pollard topping the list with 79 transactions. KeyBank came in second, with 33 loans, and Capital Funding was not far behind, closing 28 transactions. Housing & Healthcare Finance and First American Capital Group tied for fourth, each with 18 loans closed. Lancaster Pollard... Read More »
Care Investment Trust Partners With Phoenix Senior Living
Care Investment Trust joint ventured with Phoenix Senior Living for the second time this year, acquiring a 68-unit assisted living/memory care community in Albany, Georgia. Built in 1999, the community was formerly owned by the Phoebe Putney Health System, a not-for-profit health network in southwest Georgia. It now brings Phoenix’s operating portfolio to eight communities across the Southeast, not including three projects currently under construction. Jay Miele and Brady Stern of Hammond Hanlon Camp LLC advised Phoebe Putney on the transaction. Earlier this year, Care Investment Trust and Phoenix Senior Living partnered to acquired a 64-unit memory care community in Fayetteville, Georgia... Read More »Lancaster Pollard Lands Another HUD Loan
Lancaster Pollard didn’t rest on its laurels for long. After HUD announced that Lancaster Pollard beat out all other HUD LEAN lenders in both number of transactions (79) and loan volume (nearly $770 million), the firm closed another HUD loan on behalf of Premier Senior Living. A group of seven of its senior care facilities in the Southeast were previously financed with bonds from a national bank that were set to mature in the fall of 2017. So, Ross Holland and Jason Dopoulos of Lancaster Pollard arranged a $47.1 million loan to refinance the portfolio, which included orchestrating a master lease and debt allocation for four of the communities. The loan also funds replacement reserves for... Read More »
HJ Sims Leads San Diego CCRC Financing
A not-for-profit CCRC in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego, California is planning a large expansion to its skilled nursing services, to include a brand-new 72-bed, three-story skilled nursing building, plus various improvements to the assisted living and memory care communities. The project is Phase II of a three-phase retooling of the 500-unit community, which is managed by Life Care Services. To fund the $51.6 million expansion, the CCRC provided $7.1 million of equity, reallocated about $5.5 million not used in the Phase I project, and turned to HJ Sims to facilitate a $39 million direct bank placement bond issue with City National Bank. The tax-exempt bonds were issued on parity... Read More »