• 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 »

As cap rates rise, AL prices stay

Last week, we wrote that while the average price per unit for IL communities fell by over $30,000 from the calendar year 2014 to the four quarters ending Q2:15, the average cap rate remained at 7.4%. Meanwhile, the inverse was true for the assisted living market. The average price per unit for AL communities rose slightly from $188,700 to $189,500, just a 0.4% change, over the same period, but the average cap rate rose 15 basis points from 7.75% in 2014 to 7.9% in the four quarters ending Q2:15. This could partially be explained by the fact that the IL market can be more mercurial than the AL market, as there is a more constant and stable need for assisted living. But to explain the rise... Read More »

Capital One to acquire GE Capital’s U.S. Healthcare Finance Unit

After hearing of other companies in the hunt to acquire GE Capital’s U.S. Healthcare Finance business (one of the Big Three REITs and a bank among them), Capital One announced that it signed a definitive agreement with GE Capital Corporation to acquire approximately $8.5 billion of healthcare-related loans and its Healthcare Financial Services business for a 6% premium to par value of all receivables as of June 30, 2015. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2015, and Darren Alcus, President of GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services, will become the President of Capital One’s healthcare finance business. Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo Securities acted as exclusive... Read More »

A tale of two earnings

What a difference a day can make. After Brookdale Senior Living’s meltdown in the market, when it ended Tuesday with a 7.1% drop in value on trading volume that was eight times the normal level, Capital Senior Living reported much more optimistic numbers. Occupancy was up 70 basis points from both the first quarter this year and the second quarter last year. June occupancy alone was up 40 basis points sequentially and was continuing to increase in July and August with some of their best move-in and deposit weeks ever. Its 2013 acquisitions are at 93% occupancy, and both the 2014 and 2015 acquisitions are at 95% occupancy. Apparently, they saw this coming with their activity in late March.... Read More »

Freddie Mac welcomes newest lender

Arbor Commercial Mortgage is fast diversifying its seniors housing lending platform. In June, the company closed its first bridge loan. In July, Fannie Mae approved Arbor as a Seniors Housing DUS Lender. And now in August, it was appointed as Freddie Mac’s latest Seniors Housing Lender, one of just 15 others in the country. Arbor kicked off this new relationship by providing a $12.1 million loan to refinance a 98-unit assisted living community in Mesquite, Texas. Built in 1999 and renovated in 2013, the community had an average occupancy rate of 96.5%. Jeff Ringwald, SVP of Seniors Housing & Healthcare for Arbor, closed the loan which featured a 10-year term and 30-year amortization... Read More »

As prices fall, IL cap rates stay

The average price per unit for independent living had the most dramatic change of the other acuity classes (a 13% drop from 2014 to the 12-months ending June 30, 2015, compared to a 0.4% increase for assisted living and a 3% drop for skilled nursing in the same time period), so one would expect some move in average cap rate, presumably a move up. But, the average IL cap rate for the 12-months ending June 30 did not budge from its 2014 level of 7.4%. Perhaps the quality of IL transactions hasn’t changed, with owners of high-quality communities still tempted by the high valuations, but there just have not been as many of those ultra-high end sales this year. Read More »

Brookdale’s Second Quarter Worse Than Expected

Occupancy continues to tumble at Brookdale Senior Living, but this time the legacy Brookdale properties post huge declines. When Brookdale Senior Living closed its acquisition of Emeritus exactly one year ago, they did not expect to be having the problems they are with the transition. A transition that was supposedly ahead of schedule last December. Brookdale’s first quarter this year was a big disappointment for investors. The second quarter was even worse. And the problem this time was not just Emeritus, which saw a 50 basis point decline in occupancy sequentially. The legacy Brookdale properties had a 120 basis point decline in occupancy in just one quarter, and they are now down 190... Read More »

Ensign crosses the Mississippi…East

An operator of skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities primarily in western states, The Ensign Group made its first eastward crossing of the Mississippi in a big way, by acquiring the operations of 15 assisted living communities with 687 total units in Wisconsin. Bridgestone Living LLC, Ensign’s seniors housing subsidiary, assumed a long-term master lease on the properties, which includes an option to purchase all of the real estate. The portfolio, with a combined occupancy rate of 83%, is expected to be mildly accretive to earnings in 2015. In addition, the next day Ensign bolstered its already strong presence in Southern California with the acquisition of two... Read More »

Average SNF prices fall

Prices continue to drop off from their record highs seen in 2014. As with independent living, the same holds true for skilled nursing, which fell 3% from $76,600 per bed in 2014 to $74,100 in the 12-months ending June 30, 2015, according to a supplemental report to The Senior Care Acquisition Report. Still, skilled nursing prices have risen significantly since 2011 (when the average price paid was $51,100 per bed), and have seemingly plateaued at around $75,000 per bed. With SNFs taking on higher acuity (thus higher paying) patients while also trying to increase Medicare census, the average facility value will most likely not come close to those 2011 levels again. Read More »

Active developer at it again

Smith/Packett Med-Com, a developer of seniors housing across the Southeast but concentrated in Virginia, is adding a 102-unit assisted living/memory care community to its portfolio. Located on a high-visibility spot in Yorktown, Virginia, The Crossings on the Peninsula will feature 68 assisted living units and 34 memory care units, in addition to an in-house rehabilitation and therapy space for its residents. Working with Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer, Smith/Packett closed on the 8.43 acre site in June for $1.16 million and has begun clearing the site for construction. When the community opens in the summer of 2016, to the tune of nearly $16 million, or $156,900 per unit,... Read More »

High-quality rural senior living sells

Just how does a high-quality assisted/independent living community located in rural Northeast Ohio maintain a combined occupancy over 90%? Well, aside from having an excellent reputation for care and services, the community was owned by a local golf pro and golf course owner with ties to the seniors housing industry, who would let residents and guests of residents play at his neighboring course free of charge. That added feature certainly must have helped keep census strong over the years, and maybe prompted a few more visits from family members. The community was built in 2001 with 56 units of assisted living, and added 12 independent living cottages between 2004 and 2008. At the time of... Read More »

Greystone facilitates Pacifica’s Georgia exit

Pacifica Companies is exiting the Georgia market with the sale of its two assisted living/memory care communities in the Atlanta metro area. The portfolio, which includes a 58-unit community with 36 assisted living units and 22 memory care units in Dunwoody, Georgia, and a 32-unit stand-alone memory care community in Roswell, Georgia, was approximately 75% occupied and was not a strategic fit for Pacifica. The buyer, a publicly-traded REIT, paid $10.8 million, or $120,000 per unit, and will bring on a local operator to manage. Mike Garbers of Greystone Real Estate Advisors led the sale. Read More »