• Joint Venture Acquires Four AL/MC Communities

    Following an active year of M&A with five separate deals totaling 21 properties, Stacked Stone Ventures has kicked off its 2026 growth with a portfolio acquisition in the Southeast. In a joint venture with Praxis Capital and an undisclosed family office, Stacked Stone, which was founded by Kent Eikanas, bought four assisted living/memory care... Read More »
  • Another Publicly Traded REIT Joins the M&A Mix

    Another well-capitalized institutional player is stepping into the seniors housing fray, adding fuel to an already aggressive bidding environment. And based on its initial acquisitions, with one closed at more than $1 million per unit, the target seems to be high-quality assets. Prices are rising fast in that segment, and as the buyer pool... Read More »
  • Distressed AL/MC Community Gets New Owner

    Scott Frazier, Kory Buzin and Steve Thomes of Blueprint advised a special servicer in the seniors housing sector on the sale of Spanish Vines, a well-maintained assisted living/memory care community. It sits in a densely populated Pocket-Greenhaven neighborhood of southwest Sacramento, California. The 88-unit community was generating negative... Read More »
  • Underperforming Community Sells and Secures Financing

    A buyer recently acquired an underperforming seniors housing community in Charleston, South Carolina, and Blueprint Capital Markets secured the debt financing. Blueprint also represented the undisclosed seller in its divestment. The asset comprises 84 units of assisted living and memory care. There is room for occupancy growth and expense cuts,... Read More »
  • Standalone MC Communities Secure Acquisition Financing

    Berkadia recently announced three financings on behalf of three different sponsors. In one of the closings, Steve Muth and Ed Williams arranged $25.8 million in acquisition financing for Peregrine Senior Living at Clifton Park and Peregrine Senior Living at Orchard Park. The bridge financing was provided through Berkadia’s Proprietary Lending... Read More »
To Settle Or Not to Settle

To Settle Or Not to Settle

Sometimes, when people search for problems at a senior living provider, it just gets absurd. I read this week a story in McKnight’s about a senior living provider who was sued and settled on a payment of a few hundred thousand dollars for the “crime” of not having sign language interpreters available. My reaction was, you’ve got to be kidding! No one had asked for sign language interpreters, but apparently someone went in “undercover” and found out they were not available. Imagine that. Obviously, I have nothing against the deaf, and my hearing is beginning to go, but to be coerced into forking over a few hundred thousand dollars for not having a service that was not asked for, well, this... Read More »
Expense Ratios: Independent Living Vs. Assisted Living

Expense Ratios: Independent Living Vs. Assisted Living

When comparing the independent living and assisted living markets, one would expect IL communities to operate at a higher margin than AL, given its lower services and thus, costs. And while that remained true in 2016, independent living and assisted living expense ratios came as close to equal as any time in the past, at 69.5% and 72.5%, respectively, according to the 22nd Edition of The Senior Care Acquisition Report. Only in 2011, when independent living had a higher expense ratio than assisted living, by just 10 basis points, did the two sectors operate more similarly. The shift has been steady, with the spread between IL and AL expense ratios of properties sold sharply decreasing from... Read More »

All OK in Otay Ranch

The team at Cushman & Wakefield is helping a senior living development get off the ground in the newly developed master-planned community of Otay Ranch in Chula Vista, California (San Diego MSA). Expected to break ground at the end of the month, the project will feature 85 assisted living and 26 memory care units in two stories. A joint venture between Douglas Wilson Companies and Milestone Retirement is developing the community on a 4.5-acre site, which it hopes to open by the fall of 2018. Rick Swartz, Aaron Rosenszweig and Jim Dooley of Cushman & Wakefield represented Douglas Wilson Companies in arranging $22 million in construction debt from Wells Fargo as well as over $8.3... Read More »
New Owner For New Pond Village

New Owner For New Pond Village

Benchmark Senior Living, the largest seniors housing provider in the Northeast, just added its fourth CCRC, and 54th overall location, to its impressive portfolio. In a partnership with investment firm Farallon Capital Management, Benchmark acquired New Pond Village, a 199-unit entrance-fee CCRC in Walpole, Massachusetts (Boston MSA), for an undisclosed price. Built in 1992, it currently features 167 independent living and 32 assisted living units. The 90-bed skilled nursing facility was split off from the community in the mid-1990s, but residents at the CCRC have a priority admissions agreement with the SNF. This transaction comes 13 years after the seller, The Shelter Group, originally... Read More »
Is Brookdale Prepping For The Sale?

Is Brookdale Prepping For The Sale?

As you may know, we were never a fan of Brookdale Senior Living’s acquisition of Emeritus, and we are still not a fan of any company in the space operating 500 or more communities, let alone 1,000. It is just not that easy, and while we do not fault management for having a hard time of it, we do fault management for getting to the size it is. At least, the management responsible for the growth, and not the people trying to work things out. Brookdale announced its first quarter earnings, and investors seemed to like what they saw and heard. They ignoredthe same-community decline on occupancy of 100 basis points to 85.7% year over year, as well as the 80 basis point sequential decline. The... Read More »

Ventana by Bucker Gets Off The Ground

Several years after plans were first announced for two 12-story senior living towers in the North Park neighborhood of Dallas, Buckner Retirement Services has finally broken ground on The Ventana by Bucker, a 325-unit entrance fee CCRC which is estimated to cost $136 million, or about $418,000 per unit. That tops both the national average cost to construct CCRCs ($386,500 per unit) and the Texas average ($394,700 per unit), according to our in-house database of developments going back to 2013. As such, the development, which features floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the building, boasts a number of luxurious amenities including a roof-top garden, top-floor “Sky Lounge,” heated indoor... Read More »
The Members Breakfast with Alan Butler

The Members Breakfast with Alan Butler

On May 4th, 2017, we hosted the seventh installment of The SeniorCare Investor Members Breakfast at The Princeton Club in New York City. Our special guest at the subscriber-only event was Erickson Living CEO, Alan Butler.  For 45 minutes, Mr. Butler sat down with our Editor, Steve Monroe, to discuss his joining Erickson in 2010, the company’s emergence from bankruptcy, and the future of the CCRC model. Subscribers can watch the discussion below.... Read More »
Two Oregon Originations for Grandbridge Real Estate Capital

Two Oregon Originations for Grandbridge Real Estate Capital

Two Portland, Oregon-area seniors housing communities received financing from Grandbridge Real Estate Capital’s Seniors Housing and Healthcare Finance Group, headed by Richard Thomas and Meredith Davis. Starting in Portland proper, the team closed a $12 million non-recourse loan for a 58-unit assisted living/memory care community that at one point was the last acquisition of Sunwest Management before the company filed for bankruptcy protection. The original TIC investors then sold the community in late 2015 to Chicago-based Focus Healthcare Partners. Artegan began managing the 10-year old community, which was 85% occupied and earning over $630,000 in EBITDA at the time of the sale. Focus... Read More »
To Settle Or Not to Settle

The Big Deals Are Upon Us Again

Sabra Health Care REIT and Care Capital Properties announced their merger in a somewhat negative SNF market for REITs. When I wrote the lead story for the May issue of The SeniorCare Investor talking about the return of the “Big Deal” to the market, I hope you didn’t think I had any inside information. Just days after it was published, Sabra Health Care REIT and Care Capital Properties announced their merger. I had written that a REIT buying a smaller REIT could make sense, except that one of the problems with that type of deal is that you end up with a certain amount of unwanted assets. That said, the transaction makes a lot of sense for both REITs. Separately, their cost of capital was... Read More »

Lancaster Pollard Lands Financing For Nonprofit Clients

Lancaster Pollard showed its strength in agency funding, closing over $40 million in financing to help a couple of not-for-profit clients expand their services. First, in Osceola, Wisconsin, Brad Competty led the way in closing a $7.1 million HUD refinance on behalf of Christian Community Homes, a senior care provider in western Wisconsin (Minneapolis-St. Paul MSA). Originally built in 1981 as a skilled nursing facility, CCH expanded its Hudson, WI campus over the years to include senior apartments (opened in 1986), assisted living (1993) and memory care (2009). More recently, in 2011, the organization expanded on a new campus in Osceola with a 40-bed skilled nursing facility and a 20-bed... Read More »

CFG Capital Markets Advises on Seniors Housing Sale

We typically see Capital Funding Group in the financing side of the business, boasting a steady stream of agency and bridge loan closings of late. But CFG Capital Markets, its investment banking and securities subsidiary, has just announced they represented the seller in its disposition of two seniors housing communities operated by Oxford Senior Living. Located in Derby, Kansas (Wichita MSA), the 48-unit stand-alone memory care community was built in two phases in 2011 and 2013. The McKinney, Texas community features 73 units of assisted living and memory care, and only just opened in January 2017 at a cost of $15 million, or $205,500 per unit. Understandably, it is still in lease-up, at... Read More »