• BMO Provides Loan to Merrill Gardens and PGIM

    BMO’s Healthcare Real Estate Finance group acted as sole lender on an acquisition term loan of $41 million on behalf of Merrill Gardens and an institutional investor for The Ackerly at Sherwood. The Class-A community comprises 130 independent living, assisted living and memory care units in Sherwood, Oregon. It will be operated by Merrill... Read More »
  • CBRE Arranges Refinance for PinPoint Commercial

    CBRE National Senior Housing arranged a refinance for the PinPoint Portfolio on behalf of senior care provider PinPoint Commercial. Aron Will and Michael Cregan arranged the $62.1 million, three-year, interest only loan. The loan was provided by funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group through its core real estate lending... Read More »
  • Diversified Healthcare Trust Closes Two Mortgage Financings

    Diversified Healthcare Trust closed two fixed rate mortgage financings totaling $94.3 million, secured by six seniors housing communities managed by Five Star Senior Living, the operating division of AlerisLife Inc. The financings consist of a $64 million, five-year mortgage loan and a $30.3 million, ten-year Fannie Mae mortgage loan. Proceeds... Read More »
  • Ensign Makes Another Move

    The Ensign Group acquired the operations of Toluca Lake Transitional Care, a 52-bed skilled nursing facility in North Hollywood, California. The real estate will be acquired by a subsidiary of Standard Bearer Healthcare REIT, Inc., Ensign’s captive real estate company, following receipt of state regulatory approvals. The acquisition was part of... Read More »
  • CareTrust Acquires 10-Facility Skilled Nursing Portfolio

    CareTrust REIT, together with a large third-party healthcare real estate owner, acquired a skilled nursing portfolio in the Pacific Northwest. The portfolio comprises 10 facilities with 911 beds across Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The total purchase price was approximately $146 million, or $160,300 per bed, inclusive of transaction costs. ... Read More »

Senior Care Market Peak and Bottom

The private market valuation may have peaked, but the public market may have seen its low. As you know, I have been vocal about the acquisition market being at a peak for most of this year, at least when it comes to pricing. It just seems hard to imagine cap rates declining further with a rate hike looking like a reality….at least, according to consensus thinking. But the public markets are a different story. It has been a real roller coaster, but mostly down. But, and this is a big but, the downward spiral was so bad we just may have hit bottom. And November 13 is looking like the bottom, at least for now. On the provider side, both Kindred Healthcare and Genesis Health hit new lows on... Read More »

Top dollar for D.C. SNF

In one of the highest valued SNF deals ever seen in the Washington D.C. area, on a per-bed basis, a public, non-traded REIT purchased a 296-bed facility in the capitol for $50 million, or $168,900 per bed, with a 15% cap rate. For that high price (which is more than double the average price paid per bed for SNF sales in the 12 months ending September 30, 2015 of $76,900), the buyer will add a very well performing facility to its portfolio. Built in 1983, facility was 94% occupied over the trailing 12-month period ending March 31, 2014 with a 17% quality mix. Meanwhile, revenues and EBITDA were around $33.5 million and $7.5 million, respectively, which would represent a 22% margin. Included... Read More »

Building on the North Shore

The Chicago suburbs of the North Shore, one of the wealthiest areas in the country, will soon be getting a new assisted living/memory care community in the town of Prospect Heights, Illinois. Greenbrier Senior Living, a Chicago-based developer, is teaming up with institutional equity partner, Och-Ziff Real Estate, and Chicago-based operating partner, Pathway Senior Living, to build the 94,333-square foot building, which will feature 69 AL units and 32 MC units. To help finance the project, Aron Will of CBRE National Senior Housing secured a $21.41 million, five-year floating rate construction loan, with 39 months of interest only, placed through a regional bank. If we assume the loan was... Read More »

Ziegler funds reposition project

A Kentucky nonprofit with plans to renovate and reposition its skilled nursing facility in the town of Covington (Cincinnati MSA) turned to Ziegler to close a $48.7 million non-rated, fixed-rate bond issue. Incorporated in 1962, Kenton Housing has repositioned its facility several times before, most recently in 1992 when the 210-bed facility existing today was constructed on an 11-acre plot in Covington. Now, the company plans to spend upwards of $33.5 million to both renovate its existing building and construct a new senior care facility in the town of Elsmere, which will consist of 54 skilled nursing beds and 20 memory care units. Kenton Housing will transfer the CON for 34 licensed... Read More »

Pay the rent

After recently acquiring three skilled nursing facilities in Kansas (two of which were turnarounds), Birchwood Health Care Properties acquired another skilled nursing facility in need of some care, this time in Huntington, West Virginia. The facility, which includes 41 skilled beds and 17 assisted living units, was originally built in 1928 but was renovated in 2009. And despite having a stabilized occupancy at 90%, it was losing money. This was the only senior care asset of the owner, who decided to sell the facility when their operator tenant stopped paying rent and filed for bankruptcy. Enter Birchwood, which purchased the facility for $3.2 million, or $55,200 per bed/unit and brought in... Read More »

Two for one

Greystone completed its first transaction where it both assists with a sale and places the debt to fund it. Mike Garbers, a Managing Director of Greystone Real Estate Advisors, closed the sale of a 110-unit assisted living/memory care community in Virginia Beach, Virginia for $38 million, or an above-average $345,500 per unit. A private seniors housing owner is the seller, and Capital Senior Living is the buyer. Built in 2001, the assisted living portion includes 69 studios and 16 one-bedroom units, while the 25 memory care units (all studios) were added in 2012. To finance the transaction, Cary Tremper of Greystone’s Debt and Structured Finance Team secured a $28.5 million loan through a... Read More »

REIT divests non-core Mass. SNF

The team of Steve Thomes, Tim Cobb and Ben Firestone of Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors closed the sale of a 107-bed skilled nursing facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts for $3.21 million, or $30,000 per bed. Prompted by the desire of its publicly-traded REIT owner to strategically divest some of its non-core assets, the facility had just marginal EBITDAR on approximately $6.8 million of trailing 12-month revenues. Hoping to capitalize on the low price-per-bed value and expand its footprint in the Northeast, a regional owner/operator was the buyer. Read More »

The Senior Care Pricing Disconnect

The public equity market for senior care operating companies and REITs is getting slammed, but the private investment market remains strong. The pricing disconnect continues. Public equity investors continue to slam the senior care operating companies and health care REITs. All one has to do is look at what has happened to Kindred Healthcare and Genesis Health this past week or two, when both companies dropped to new lows and have not yet recovered. Fears of reimbursement pressure, fears of OIG investigations, fears of staffing costs. All have some degree of merit, but it seems like an overreaction to me. Just look at the private market, where both acquisition pricing and demand remain... Read More »

High value in Seattle

Capitol Seniors Housing saw potential in a well performing senior living community in Seattle, Washington, shelling out $26 million, or $218,500 per unit, for it. Built in 2006, the four-story, 119-unit building has mostly assisted living, with some independent living, as well as 20 memory care units. Also, with the owner both developing the property and running it himself, occupancy has historically been between 85% and 90%. However, there is room for improvement. Capitol Seniors Housing plans to invest up to $2.5 million on remodeling and upgrades and will hire Milestone Retirement Communities to operate. Plus, the buyer plans to convert the IL units to AL and memory care while also... Read More »

Serving our Veterans

As today is Veterans Day, it seems most appropriate to mention there is a new senior living community being developed in Jacksonville, Florida that will serve, among others, the large veteran population surrounding the Mayport Naval Base and Air Station. Developers David Kirkland, Carson McCall and Wayne McCall are leading the effort to build Anthem Lakes and will enlist Perry-McCall Construction and PQH Architects for the project. A majority of the units (83) will be for assisted living, while 34 will be designated for memory care and 20 for independent living. Also, a portion of the memory care wing will be set aside for veterans with mild brain trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder,... Read More »

Mainstreet Does Canada….Again

Perhaps one of the most dynamic firms in the senior care market, Mainstreet is at it again with a new publicly traded platform in Canada. Its last Canadian entity was sold to Health Care REIT (now Welltower) last year for a tidy profit. Using its recently announced acquisition of a portfolio of skilled nursing facilities in the Chicago market, Mainstreet has agreed to do a reverse merger with a shell company that is publicly listed in Canada that, when completed, will take the new name of Mainstreet Health Investments (MHI). And guess who will be the CEO of the new entity? None other than Zeke Turner, Mainstreet’s founder and CEO. MHI plans to buy skilled nursing, assisted living and... Read More »