• Value-Add AL/MC Community Trades

    An institutional owner decided to divest a non-core asset, and engaged Jason Punzel, Vince Viverito, Jake Anderson and Taylor Graham of Senior Living Investment Brokerage to run the sale process. The asset is located in Hillsboro, Oregon (Portland MSA), and features 36 assisted living and memory care units, with 62 licensed beds. It was built in... Read More »
  • Brookdale Divests California Community to Public REIT

    Blueprint was engaged by an institutional, national owner/operator in the strategic disposition of a large rental CCRC in Bakersfield, California. The 20-acre campus was developed in 1999 and provides the whole continuum of care, including independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing across three large buildings and... Read More »
  • Two Midwest Assets Trade

    A couple of seniors housing communities traded in the Midwest, selling to a couple of growing owner/operators. First, in the Indianapolis area, The Kiser Group’s Mark Myers and SVN | Senior Living Advisors’ John Klement led the sale of a 157-unit seniors housing community featuring a mix of independent living, assisted living and memory care... Read More »
  • Assisted Living Portfolio Closes in Wisconsin

    Bob Richards of Senior Care Realty recently completed the sale of a five-property assisted living portfolio in Wisconsin, closing the deal in multiple tranches. Richards had worked with the seller, AC Capital, for 15 years, helping them grow their portfolio over the years. AC Capital also has self-managed the communities for the last decade. Now,... Read More »
  • 60 Seconds with Swett: Here We Go Again

    AARP just published a report on assisted living, and all I can say is, here we go again. It concludes that “the state of assisted living today is cause for concern for many stakeholders. The lack of national federal standards for care centers creates an underregulated space.” It continues on, stating that the “absence of national oversight,... Read More »

Reposition and refinance

HJ Sims recently helped Cross Keys Village, the ninth-largest single-site not-for-profit CCRC in the country, obtain two bank loans, totaling $42.5 million, in order to both refinance a bridge line of credit and fund an expansion of its campus. Founded in 1908, the CCRC currently features 444 independent living units (in apartments, cottages and country homes), 91 assisted living units and 270 skilled nursing beds. The sponsor, the Southern District of the Pennsylvania Church of the Bretheren, together with architectural firm SFCS, Greenbrier Development and Sims, decided on a campus expansion project, which would include expanding its health center facilities (particularly its skilled... Read More »

Improving senior care facility sells

With a stable occupancy and rising Medicare revenues, a 94-bed skilled nursing and memory care facility in Lawrenceburg, Indiana represented a good opportunity for a local undisclosed buyer to both cash in on the 19% operating margin, and improve it. Originally built in 1984 with 35 semi-private and 12 private units, the facility provides a wide array of services, including physical therapy, nursing complex care, dementia care and social services. In 2010, it underwent a $395,000 renovation mainly to the private-room wing in order to attract Medicare rehab patients. Thanks in part to the facility’s relationship with the local hospital (which had 1,779 Medicare patients with a mean length... Read More »

The Santa Stock Rally Is Stalling

We were supposed to see stocks rise this month, but so far the market is down as are seniors housing stocks. So what happened to the Santa rally? While we still have a few weeks to go before the end of the year, the markets have been sinking, and almost all seniors housing and care stocks have dropped, with Brookdale Senior Living falling the most, with a loss in value of 12% since November 30. It has now dropped below the psychologically important $20 threshold, and any bad news could add insult to injury. The others are closer to a mid-single-digit decline this month, but with one glaring exception. That is The Ensign Group, which is up just over 2% this month as it keeps chugging along... Read More »

Greystone closes over $210 million

Greystone has been relatively quiet in the press over the last few months, but the lender was of course hard at work. Across 11 transactions (all previously unannounced since August 2015), the lender closed over $210 million in seniors housing lending transactions. The financings were for properties located across the country, ranging in size and services offered, from age-restricted housing to memory care. The loan amounts were as small as a $2 million bank loan to finance a land acquisition for seniors housing in Waldwick, New Jersey, to as large as a $46 million Freddie Mac refinance on a 209-unit independent living/assisted living/memory care community in Anaheim, California. There... 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 »