• 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 »

Bank Leumi refinances in Florida

Hely Santeliz of Bank Leumi’s Florida region led the way in structuring two refinancings for senior living properties in Florida totaling $43.7 million. In the first transaction, Bank Leumi structured a $54 million refinancing with it providing $27 million and a regional bank providing the other half for a retirement campus with independent/assisted living and memory care units in Central Florida. And staying in the area, Hely Santeliz also arranged $16.7 million in two credit facilities for Plantation Oaks Senior Living Management, a Florida-based seniors housing owner/operator. The first credit facility was secured by a first mortgage on an existing 67-unit AL/MC community and was... Read More »

In Indiana

Life Care Services (LCS) recently announced it was breaking ground on the Clarendale of Schererville in Schererville, Indiana, the third “Clarendale” property for LCS and construction partner Ryan Companies. The community will feature 177 units of independent living, assisted living and memory care at a cost of $40 million, or $226,000 per unit, to build. The two other “Clarendale” properties are located in Illinois: a 186-unit community in Algonquin and a 156-unit community in Mokena. While the newest property will be ready to open in spring 2017, it will not be short on company. There has been plenty of building going on in the state of Indiana, particularly in the Gary and Indianapolis... Read More »

Go with Propero

For operators looking to own their own facilities while minimizing the amount of capital committed to construction, Lancaster Pollard offers a program that may help them do just that. Launched in 2012 and led by Craig Jones, LP’s Propero™ Senior Housing Equity Fund has provided a total of $88 million in gross investments spanning across the acuity spectrum, from IL/AL to memory care to skilled nursing. The way it works is the Fund invests in seniors housing properties as the sole owner and then triple-net leases them to an operator. The operator, therefore, doesn’t have to invest as much equity in the project or acquisition and can then choose from a predetermined purchase option schedule... Read More »

Struggling facility sells…under $12,000 a bed

It’s not often we see a senior care facility sell for under $15,000 per bed, especially when that facility is majority AL, with a smaller SNF component. It’s also rare to see a facility with a combined occupancy of 82% and a 20% Medicare census at the SNF. Nevertheless, a facility just like that in Corona, California sold for $2.5 million, or $11,200 per bed. Just how could a facility with adequate occupancy and a decent Medicare census sell for so low a price? Well, that was what the operations went for without the real estate…yet. The owner, who previously owned a number of other SNFs in the area but has since lost them all to bankruptcy, had a history of hiring friends and family at... Read More »

A lot of building, but what’s the cost?

Taking a look at the NIC MAP® Construction Monitor as of Q2:15, which examines seniors housing construction in the Top 99 MSAs, we noticed on the AL side there were 22 MSAs with a construction vs. inventory ratio above 10%. If that doesn’t show a frothy development market, then what does? But, what is the cost to build in some of those MSAs? The Sarasota market, which has gotten a good amount of attention for its development pace, has eight assisted living properties under construction, and 893 units, representing a construction vs. inventory ratio of 30.7%. According to our data, which tracks senior living construction projects since 2013, majority-AL communities in the Sarasota market... Read More »

Excessive Use Of Ultra-High Therapy in SNFs

A recent story highlighted the dramatic rise in ultra-high therapy use in SNFs, but are there legitimate reasons for it? Two days ago, The Wall Street Journal had a front page story about the sudden increase in the percentage of patient days in skilled nursing facilities using “ultra-high” therapy, which is a maximum of 720 minutes per week. Apparently, in 2002, nursing facilities gave ultra-high therapy to patients on 7% of the days they billed to Medicare, but this increased to 54% of patient days by 2013, with the percentage increasing every year. The gist of the story was that providers have been gaming the system to get the highest reimbursement. I had hoped we were getting beyond... Read More »

Greystone and Oakmont at it again

Greystone expanded its relationship yet again with Oakmont Senior Living. Having previously provided a $150 million Freddie Mac credit revolver (including an additional $23.5 million tranche provided last month) and an $18.8 million Freddie Mac loan for Oakmont’s Fresno, California property, Greystone continued its work by closing a $58.34 million Freddie Mac refinance for Oakmont’s 163-unit independent living community in Santa Rosa, California. The financing came to $358,000 per unit. This 10-year loan was funded through Freddie Mac’s Index Lock product, which enables the borrower to lock in the existing 10-year Treasury rate prior to commitment. Greystone was able to procure a fixed... Read More »

HFF does double duty

Talk about a one-stop shop. In addition to closing the sale on behalf of an investment client for its 142-unit independent living community in Teaneck, New Jersey, HFF also secured a $33.23 million floating rate loan on behalf of the undisclosed buyer. The financing came to $234,000 per unit, so the price had to be $300,000 per unit, or higher. Built in 2004, the community, which features 45 one-, 94 two- and three three-bedroom units, was 97.2% occupied and is located just down the street from Holy Name Hospital. There are also a host of amenities, including a restaurant-style dining room, hair and nail salon, and tennis courts. For the buyer, HFF arranged the loan through Investors Bank... Read More »

SNF cap rates fall

The average price paid for skilled nursing facilities has largely leveled off at around $75,000 per bed, coming to rest at $74,100 per bed for the four quarters ending Q2:15, down from $76,600 per unit in 2014. But while prices have stayed largely the same, the average cap rate fell 40 basis points to 12.0%, a new record low. In the past 14 years (looking at calendar years), the previous record-low came at the top of the previous bull market in 2007 at 12.1%. And the rate at which the average cap rate has fallen is also stark, falling 100 basis points from 2013’s average. But if the overall trend this year has been that the market is cooling down from an especially frothy 2014, why are cap... Read More »

CareTrust bucks the trend

Since its formation in June 2014 when it was spun out from The Ensign Group as a publicly traded REIT, CareTrust REIT has largely taken part in small one- to three-property acquisitions with prices as small as $6.6 million but never larger than $18 million. Then the REIT surprised us (and others we presume) by announcing a $175 million acquisition of 14 senior care properties, valued at $139,110 per bed/unit. The portfolio, owned and operated by Liberty Nursing Centers, includes 1,102 operating skilled nursing beds and 156 assisted living and independent living units throughout the state of Ohio. Stepping in to operate these facilities will be Indiana-based Pristine Senior Living, which... Read More »

Mix of financing funds project

An assisted living/memory care community to be built in North Seattle’s Bitter Lake neighborhood has plenty of supporters, financial or otherwise, wanting to help it fill up and succeed. Zenith Capital, a Seattle-based leader in alternative financing for the seniors housing industry, is planning to build a 100-unit community, with 79 units of assisted living and 21 units of memory care. To operate, Zenith brought on Village Concepts, which manages 15 senior communities in Washington with over 1,400 residents. We will have to wait and see how fill-up goes, but it certainly helps this project that the “newest” seniors housing community in the area was built in 2006, with the majority dating... Read More »