• 60 Seconds with Swett: Senior Care’s PR Problem

    Recently, we have seen stories circulating about the connection between REIT ownership and the way skilled nursing facilities provide care, stemming from a study written by the nonprofit journalism outlet KFF Health News. We’ve seen this before, headlines like “real estate investors profit while patients suffer,” usually with graphic cases of... Read More »
  • Blueprint Sets Pricing Record in New York State

    Blueprint advised a repeat private equity client in a record-setting sale of two standalone memory care communities in high barrier-to-entry submarkets in New York State. Combining for 104 units, these assets were purpose-built in the late 1990s and were stabilized at the time of the deal. Not only that, they were generating cash flow in excess... Read More »
  • CareTrust Keeps Its Foot on the Gas

    CareTrust REIT has deployed nearly $1 billion in closed transactions so far this year, after closing around $1.8 billion in investment activity in 2025, and its pipeline includes $450 million of near-term, actionable opportunities, excluding larger portfolio transactions. The REIT announced that it closed a few separate transactions in mid-April,... Read More »
  • VIUM Capital Announces Slew of HUD Closings

    VIUM Capital closed four HUD 232/223(f) financings in March totaling more than $63 million across a mix of skilled nursing and seniors housing communities. Two of the financings involved skilled nursing facilities in Oklahoma totaling 176 beds. The assets were originally acquired as part of a larger portfolio and refinanced following a... Read More »
  • Lument Secures HUD Express Lane Transaction

    Lument closed a refinance through HUD’s Express Lane for a 120-unit seniors housing community in Lincoln, Nebraska. Built in 2017, Pemberly Place Senior Living features 132 licensed beds and offers independent living, assisted living and memory care services. It also has an on-site medical clinic to offer a range of other healthcare services. The... Read More »

CareTrust REIT’s Wisconsin senior care strategy

CareTrust REIT just doubled down on its Wisconsin senior care strategy. Almost a year after acquiring an assisted living community in West Allis, Wisconsin from Priority Life Care (and then leasing it back), CareTrust is acquiring two more memory care communities in the Milwaukee MSA for approximately $26.1 million, or $296,591 per unit. The communities were well occupied (both at 97%) and relatively recently built (one property was built in 1997 and 2011 and the other was in 2013). Added to a master lease with Premier Senior Living for the remaining initial term of 14 years (with two five-year renewal options and CPI-based rent escalators), the communities are expected to generate annual... Read More »
Another Record Year for Skilled Nursing Facility Prices

Another Record Year for Skilled Nursing Facility Prices

At the ASHA annual meeting, where they are not talking about record skilled nursing facility prices. Ok, so here I am at the conclusion of the annual ASHA meeting in California, where we are not talking about record skilled nursing facility prices. This is a forum where all the major leaders in the seniors housing sector get together in a more informal setting and see what is going on in the their industry. But I am not going to talk about seniors housing today. I am going to talk about skilled nursing. We are wrapping up our analysis on the 2016 M&A market, and we may have a few surprises for people, but mostly in the skilled nursing side of the business. As you may know, skilled... Read More »

Greystone Closes $204 million in Q4

As 2016 was winding down, Greystone’s seniors housing lending group was heating up, closing $204 million in financings. In the last quarter of the year, Greystone demonstrated its financial range, including Fannie Mae, HUD, bridge, mezzanine and national bank loan transactions for acquisitions, refinancings and the new construction of nearly 1,700 seniors housing and multifamily units. In the fourth quarter, the lending team, led by Scott Kavel, Neal Raburn and Cary Tremper, arranged $138 million in Fannie Mae financing, including a $48.5 million refinance for an entrance fee CCRC in the Tampa MSA. Greystone also closed $55 million in financing for three Oakmont seniors housing properties... Read More »
Vacancy in Dade City

Vacancy in Dade City

Birchwood Health Care Properties just added the 21st property to its seniors housing portfolio, but with one catch: the community is vacant. Located in Dade City, Florida (about 30 miles inland between Tampa and Orlando), the target was originally built as a hotel and converted to include 230 units of seniors housing. As recently as early 2015, it served over 200 residents but ran into clinical and operational challenges under its previous management. So in comes Birchwood, which along with operator Priority Life Care will invest $750,000 in renovations. Plus, pre-marketing and construction planning was initiated well before this transaction’s closing in early January in anticipation of a... Read More »
Ziegler Soars

Ziegler Soars

Ziegler has been dominating the tax-exempt bond financing market for seniors housing, closing over $400 million in issuances since November. Its two most recent transactions involved a couple of not-for-profit CCRC operators. First (and the largest), Ziegler closed $126 million in non-rated, tax-exempt bonds, plus $3.8 million in non-rated, taxable, fixed-rate bonds for C.C. Young Memorial Home. The Texas-based not-for-profit was founded in 1922 by the State of Texas to care for the elderly, and now owns and operates a 20-acre campus in northeast Dallas. Included at the community are 223 independent living units in a number of buildings, 75 assisted living units, 30 memory care beds and a... Read More »
Home Health Care vs. Seniors Housing

Home Health Care vs. Seniors Housing

We are faced with a question that affects, and will affect, a senior’s choice in care. When is care at home both appropriate and cost effective, and at what point is it time to move into seniors housing? On January 19th, we hosted a webinar called “Home Health vs. Seniors Housing,” where a panel including moderator Steve Monroe of The SeniorCare Investor, Rita Altman of Sunrise Senior Living, William Dombi of The National Association of Home Care & Hospice and Debbie Reilly of Belmont Village Senior Living discussed the competing and complementary roles these two levels of care provide in the health care continuum. If you are interested in hearing the conversation, here’s the 90-minute... Read More »
Florida CCRC operator receives a $160 million refinance

Florida CCRC operator receives a $160 million refinance

When the largest operator of CCRCs in the state of Florida wanted to refinance in order to take advantage of the low interest rate environment, HJ Sims was happy to oblige. Presbyterian Retirement Communities, Inc., or Westminster Communities of Florida, with 2,025 independent living, 468 assisted living and 751 skilled nursing units in its portfolio, is not only the largest CCRC operator in the Sunshine State (with nine), but is also the 10th largest not-for-profit operator of senior living units in the country. Founded in 1954, the organization targets the middle income market, with entrance fees ranging from $44,100 to $357,000, and averaging at $120,600. Westminster already worked with... Read More »

Cambridge Realty Capital On a Roll

When it rains, it pours for Cambridge Realty Capital Companies, which announced a succession of three loan closings throughout the middle of the country. First up, the firm arranged $5.32 million in 24-year HUD financing for a Missouri LLC to refinance its 114-bed skilled nursing facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Then, down to Kansas City, Missouri, a 162-bed facility owned by a Missouri limited partnership also refinanced with a $4.02 million 25-year HUD loan. These closings come a month after Cambridge worked with Aron Will of CBRE to secure $30 million from a national bank to refinance a portfolio of four seniors housing communities in the El Paso, Texas area. Managed by 12 Oaks... Read More »
Another Record Year for Skilled Nursing Facility Prices

Medicaid Block Grants Coming Soon

Many skilled nursing operators will not like the aspect of repeal and replace that could introduce Medicaid block grants. The prospect of Medicaid block grants has been lurking in the background for many years, a few decades perhaps. With the new Trump administration now installed, block grants of Medicaid funds to each state seem to be on the front burner as part of the repeal and replace of the ACA. Block grants would be just that, a fixed pool of money from the federal government that each state would decide how to spend on its Medicaid beneficiaries. Many skilled nursing operators have feared that prospect, because they fear they will be the last ones to be paid. And they may be right,... Read More »

A value-add opportunity in Whitehouse?

As our former President jetted off to California on Inauguration Day, a California-based public REIT moved out of Whitehouse, Texas, with the sale of its 120-bed skilled nursing facility. Located in the Tyler MSA, this facility was 88% occupied at the time of the sale with a 24.5% quality mix. But the REIT seller considered the property non-core (the previous operator was also looking to exit), and the buyer, a New York-based owner/operator with a notable presence in East Texas, saw a value-add opportunity. It paid $6.42 million, or $53,500 per licensed bed, and Chris Hyldahl and Gideon Orion of Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors handled the transaction. Read More »
Vacancy in Dade City

Welcome, Wardman Group

A boutique real estate investment firm, having just been founded in 2016, is making its first acquisition in seniors housing. The Wardman Group, based in Washington, D.C., plans to invest in value-add opportunities in the hospitality and seniors housing sectors, starting with a 92-unit independent living/assisted living/memory care community in Columbia, South Carolina. Bringing in Integral Senior Living to manage the property (its first in the state), Wardman will begin a $1.4 million renovation to the common areas, exterior and dining room, along with an expansion of its memory care offering from 14 units to 22. Post-renovation, the community will feature 38 IL, 32 AL and 22 MC... Read More »