• Ensign Makes a Splash in Texas

    The Ensign Group closed out April with a bang, announcing the acquisition of the real estate and operations of 17 skilled nursing facilities spread across Texas, plus the real estate of two seniors housing communities in Wisconsin.  The Texas portfolio is majority-SNF, with 2,080 skilled nursing beds. There are also some seniors housing... Read More »
  • Public REIT Sells Value-Add Community to Joint Venture

    Kandu Capital, a family office specializing in real estate and healthcare, and its operating company, Bloom Senior Living, acquired an assisted living/memory care community in Ohio after strategically divesting a number of skilled nursing, behavioral health and seniors housing assets at healthy valuations. Those dispositions were initially... Read More »
  • Not-for-Profit Divests Its CCRC Portfolio to Another Not-for-Profit

    A portfolio of CCRCs in South-Central Pennsylvania changed hands from one faith-based not-for-profit organization to another, with Toby Siefert and Dave Balow of Senior Living Investment Brokerage handling the process. The pair represented the seller, SpiriTrust Lutheran, an 80-year-old operator based in York, Pennsylvania, in the sale of six... Read More »
  • AL/MC Community Trending Towards Stabilization Sells

    Blueprint’s suite of services was on display in the sale and financing of an assisted living/memory care community in Fredericksburg, Texas. Built in 2018, The Villages of Windcrest was performing well at the time of marketing, and was trending towards stabilization. Newer, performing properties are getting the most interest in the M&A market... Read More »
  • Montgomery Intermediary Group Brings on New Advisor

    Continuing its momentum in 2026, Montgomery Intermediary Group (MIG) announced that it hired Colin Thomas, CFA as an investment sales advisor. In this role, Thomas will lead seniors housing and skilled nursing transactions across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, expanding MIG’s coverage and capabilities in these markets. Thomas’s... Read More »

Avanti continues its growth

A relatively new developer in seniors housing, but founded by owners (Lori Alford and Tim Hekker) with plenty of experience in the industry, Avanti Senior Living is continuing its development pipeline, announcing its next project in Covington, Louisiana. Designed with the local style in mind, the planned community will resemble a large manor house, featuring 60 assisted living units and 50 memory care units. Rents will begin at $3,800 per month and go up based on care levels. At a development cost of $21 million, or 190,900 per unit, the community is on the higher end in terms of cost (the average for AL/MC new construction projects in the Southeast, excluding Florida, is approximately... Read More »

Selling in Sylmar

Shep Roylance, of The JCH Group, closed the sale of a 175-bed skilled nursing facility in Sylmar, California, on behalf of the seller, LifeHOUSE Healthcare Services, which was looking to exit Los Angeles County and focus their efforts in other areas of the state. The facility is running well, with a 97% occupancy, 18.6% operating margin on $10.0 million of revenues, and successful pulmonary transitional care and stroke care programs. Also, prior to the sale, the facility received about $2.4 million in capex. Independence Healthcare Management was the buyer, purchasing the property for $14.4 million, or $82,300 per bed, with a 12.9% cap rate based on EBITDARM. Plus, included in the sale... Read More »

People on the move, November 2015

Clearly in the holiday spirit, several companies have recently announced new hires or promotions. First, REDICO, a real estate development and investment company, promoted Samantha Eckhout to VP of Development and Tim McCafferty to VP of Construction. Both have backgrounds as project managers for REDICO, which is working on building its development pipeline. Next up, HFF hired Peter Rotchford as director of its New York office. Coming from Avison Young, Mr. Rotchford will be focused on fixed- and floating-rate debt and equity placement transactions. Finally, Lancaster Pollard promoted both Robert Baxter and Ryan Miles to senior vice president. Mr. Baxter has been with the firm since 2005,... Read More »

Sunwest still in the news

Continuing the Sunwest saga, Omega Communities purchased a 104-unit assisted living community in Hoover, Alabama that was a Sunwest property from 2006 to 2010. When the company filed for bankruptcy protection, the lender foreclosed and then sold it to an individual investor, who issued bonds to finance the acquisition. AdCare Health Systems guaranteed the bonds, and $6.1 million were still outstanding. Recently, the community hit another speed bump, when in 2014, the state required the owner to hire a new management company, which discharged more than 30 residents. Average rents were about $2,400, but occupancy was below 50%, resulting in negative cash flow. Assuming 85% occupancy, pro... Read More »

Bank Leumi finances CCRC sale

When a 234-unit CCRC in St. Charles, Missouri managed by Innovative Management Associates, a Chicago-based seniors housing owner/operator, was acquired for $17 million, or $72,650 per unit, the buyer enlisted the help of Bank Leumi to finance the transaction. Built in 1977, with expansions in 2011 and 2013, the community features 138 independent living units, 32 memory care units, 27 assisted living units (recently converted from IL) and 66 skilled nursing beds. Overall occupancy was around 76%, but that was brought down by the struggling IL component, which was just 51% occupied. So, the buyer will have their hands full with this community, but by increasing IL occupancy to 80%, annual... Read More »

High-priced transaction in Minnesota

A non-traded REIT recently bought a 105-unit senior living community in Maplewood, Minnesota for $30 million, or $285,700 per unit, with a 6.3% cap rate. Located in the Twin Cities area, the community features 22 independent living units, 51 assisted living units and 32 memory care units. It is relatively new (built in 2011 by developers experienced in seniors housing) and operates at a 37% margin on $5.15 million of revenues, based on the estimated 2015 budget. Not only that, the community has improved dramatically since the beginning of 2014, raising occupancy from around 69% to 92% by earlier this year, and EBITDA from just under $200,000 in 2014 to $1.9 million in the estimated 2015... Read More »

Record Senior Care M&A Year

With one month to go, and a busy one at that, we have surpassed 300 announced mergers and acquisitions, setting a new record. We have just passed last year’s total number of publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions, breaking through the 300-deal mark as of November 30, with one month left to go. I am beginning to wonder whether the binding of our annual Senior Care Acquisition Report will be strong enough to contain what is sure to be more than 300 pages of charts and deals covering 2015. So, are we at a market peak or not? Certainly not in terms of investor interest in buying properties across the seniors housing and care spectrum. But pricing most definitely has hit its... Read More »

Drever gets its pipeline off the ground

We wrote earlier this year of Drever Capital Management’s seniors housing ambitions in both the acquisition and development markets. The company, which has only recently shifted its focus from multifamily to seniors housing, had already made its first acquisition in 2012, purchasing a 124-unit independent living community in Lexington, South Carolina with just 50% occupancy. That deal happened to be a perfect example of Drever’s acquisition strategy of purchasing struggling communities, injecting some capital improvements ($3.7 million in this case) and hiring an operator (Renaissance Senior Communities) to improve census (it is up to 90% now) and maximize revenues. Since then, Drever has... Read More »

Converted convent sells in Wisconsin

Meridian Senior Services recently purchased a 50-unit assisted living community in Racine, Wisconsin (between Milwaukee and Chicago) for $6.5 million, or 130,000 per unit, with a 12.3% cap rate. The community has quite a history. The main building was built in 1924 originally as a convent, but was completely gutted in 2008 to provide assisted living. Currently, the 64,000-square foot building sits on 4.07 acres. The seller, which bought the property in 2007 and spent approximately $2 million for the conversion, is a local operator. Despite the renovation, the older structure of the building means the rooms are on the small side and there is not much common area, hence the higher cap rate.... Read More »

Ziegler’s $1 billion relationship

Senior Quality Lifestyles Corporation (SQLC), a Texas-based nonprofit that operates six senior living communities, hired Ziegler for the fourth time in 2015 to refinance one of its properties, which is located in the Barton Creek neighborhood of Austin, Texas and consists of 157 independent living units, 10 IL villas, 40 assisted living units, 23 memory care units and 42 skilled nursing beds. In order to refund $37.7 million in outstanding Series 2005 Bonds and finance renovations on the property, including a restoration project, SQLC turned to Ziegler to close a $50.69 million tax-exempt bond issue. The financing also helped fund a debt service reserve fund, pay the cost of issuance and... Read More »

Fraud And Senior Care

Despite some high-profile allegations against senior executives for some type of financial wrong-doing, we are still thankful for all the good work done by the nation’s caregivers. What is it about caring for the elderly and financial fraud or other misdeeds? About once a week I read about a home health agency being charged with Medicare fraud. And then there is Medicaid fraud we hear about all too often with nursing facility owners, doctors and other providers. In our senior care industry, the founder of Sunwest Management, Jon Harder, was sentenced last week to 15 years in federal prison. Also last week, the SEC charged Chris Brogdon, the CEO of Global Healthcare REIT, with... Read More »