• 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 »

The meaning of a move

So why does a successful CEO of a healthcare REIT leave to become the chief investment officer of a larger REIT? Since Justin Hutchens arrived at National Health Investors (NHI) in 2009, the REIT has posted positive returns in every year from 2010 on, including three years with total returns between 28.1% and 34.5%. And in 2010 it was the number one performing healthcare REIT. While we could joke that he yearned to return to the West Coast, the real reason had to be what his new employer, HCP, Inc., had to offer. He will be in charge of all the seniors housing and care portfolio, which is the majority of HCP and alone dwarfs the total NHI portfolio. Bottom line, it is a much bigger playing... Read More »

Senior Care Market In Confused State

Stocks are gyrating wildly, sometimes for good reason and other times not so much. Okay, I have to admit that I am confused now. When Brookdale came out with poor second quarter results, its stock tanked, as it should have. But then Capital Senior Living came out with a very upbeat quarter, and its stock jumped 10%, as it should have, but then dropped by 15% over the next several days, for little reason, other than perhaps in sympathy with Brookdale shareholders. Genesis Health announced a good quarter, and its stock jumped by 10%, as it should have, and kept on rising to a 26% gain in a week when the market as a whole tanked. Hell, it didn’t even budge when China devalued its currency. ... Read More »

CCRC in transition sells

As many of you will read in this month’s issue of The SeniorCare Investor, we discuss the difficulties in valuing an entrance-fee CCRC and a rental CCRC. But how do you value a CCRC that is in the middle of transitioning from entrance fee to all-rental? That was the problem facing a faith-based nonprofit looking to sell its CCRC in St. Louis, Missouri. Built in 1984, 2003 and 2013, the community features 110 independent living units, 22 assisted living units, 22 memory care units and 41 skilled nursing beds. The owner exclusively operates entrance-fee communities, but during the Great Recession, they decided to convert the St. Louis community to all-rental. However, because of the move,... Read More »

Financings from Capital Funding

Capital Funding Group announced a pair of HUD loans on two sides of the country. The first, originated by Patrick McGovern, totaled nearly $5.5 million and went towards refinancing a 53-bed assisted living community in Sacramento, California. Capital Funding provided the original bridge loan in 2012 for the community and recapitalized the borrowing entity with more than $1 million in cash. The second transaction, originated by Gary Sever, totaled $14 million and refinanced a bridge loan (that CFG had also previously provided) on a 180-bed skilled nursing facility in Palatka, Florida. The bridge loan helped fund the acquisition of the facility in September 2014. Capital Funding is the sole... 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 »