• 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 »

Genesis Healthcare Makes First Earnings Report

News of higher operating costs sends the shares of newly merged Genesis Healthcare and Skilled Healthcare down more than 20%. Welcome back to the world of public investors. I say this to George Hager and his team at Genesis Healthcare, which closed on the reverse merger with Skilled Healthcare on February 2. Just three weeks later, they reported fourth quarter operating results for both companies, and while the skilled patient day mix at Genesis increased by 60 basis points and occupancy increased 30 basis points from the year ago quarter, Skilled Healthcare’s occupancy declined 110 basis points from the fourth quarter in 2013, to just 81.1%. Sounds a little too similar to the... Read More »

Balfour opens in downtown Denver

A 275,000-square foot, 205-unit senior living community with five stories of independent living and three stories of assisted living and memory care opened this month in Denver, Colorado, coming with a $78 million, or $380,500 per unit, price tag. The Balfour at Riverfront Park’s urban setting, located in downtown Denver, makes it unique in the senior living world, being walking distance to theaters, restaurants and shops. The building features 112 IL units (which opened in October 2014 and are half-filled so far), 65 AL units and 28 MC units, which are on a separate secure floor. Michael Schonbrun, the developer and owner, opened his first Balfour Retirement Community in Louisville,... Read More »

Big investment from Capitol Seniors Housing

Capitol Seniors Housing (CSH), a real estate investor/developer specializing in seniors housing, recently announced that it had invested over $90 million in four senior living developments, all set to open in 2015. For roughly $34 million, or $312,000 per unit, CSH plans to open a 109-unit assisted living/memory care community (which includes a 39-unit freestanding memory care community) this month in Torrance, California, to be managed by Integral Senior Living. In May, a 79-unit AL/MC community (with 54 AL units and 25 MC units) is expected to open for a total cost of approximately $23 million, or $291,000 per unit. The building is located in Marlboro, New Jersey, which is about 30 miles... Read More »

Brookdale and Monetizing Real Estate Value

Pressure is mounting on Brookdale Senior Living to monetize the value of its owned real estate, but at what cost? The pressure is increasing on Brookdale Senior Living “to do something” to monetize the hidden value in its owned real estate. This has all come up as a result of a weak fourth quarter from the recent Emeritus purchase. We have a big problem with all this. Yes, management always has to look to increase shareholder value. But everything that is being talked about is a short-term fix taking advantage of the current capital markets environment. As you know, we never liked the Emeritus acquisition for Brookdale. But now, by selling off the owned real estate of the combined company,... Read More »

Pressure on Brookdale To Pump Up Value

A dissident shareholder has emerged trying to pressure Brookdale Senior Living to monetize its real estate assets. With Brookdale Senior Living’s weak fourth quarter earnings announcement came the dissident shareholder response from Sandell Asset Management. They want Brookdale to monetize the value of the real estate owned to boost the share price by nearly 35%, taking advantage of higher REIT valuations. Sorry, but it just isn’t that easy. Sandell’s proposal is to spin out the real estate, most likely in a new REIT in a tax-free distribution to shareholders. Well, that’s fine, but if it sale/leasebacks on 35,000 units, what about those rent escalators on such a large portfolio? Would it... Read More »

Who’s building in St. Augustine?

Having just purchased nine acres in St. Augustine, Florida at the end of last year, Baltimore, Maryland-based Capital Health Group (CHG), an affiliate of Capital Funding Group that purchases and operates seniors housing and care facilities, is poised to break ground early in the second quarter of 2015 on a 64-unit memory care community. Although the development cost was not disclosed, CHG is responsible for finding the debt (which will cover about 65% of the total development cost and come from an existing relationship) and will provide the bulk of the equity, with its partner, Fortress Ventures, providing a smaller percentage of equity. Capital Health will bring in its affiliated... Read More »

New “household” SNF under construction in Connecticut

A not-for-profit provider of long-term care in southern Connecticut, Jewish Senior Services (JSS) is planning on moving its 360-bed skilled nursing facility in Fairfield, Connecticut across the city line to Bridgeport where the company is building a new senior care campus, to be called Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus at Park Avenue. In Connecticut, you cannot move skilled nursing beds unless they are in the new “household” format, where you have groups of 14 private rooms in an area that all share a kitchen and other common areas (known also around the country as Green House Communities). Plus, the new SNFs can only have a maximum of 280 beds. So, in April 2014, JSS broke ground on a... Read More »

Kindred Completes Gentiva Acquisition

With $7.2 billion in annual revenues, Kindred Healthcare is the largest post-acute provider in the country, but now the hard work begins. This past Monday, Kindred Healthcare closed on its $1.8 billion acquisition of home health and hospice provider Gentiva Health Services. With this completed, Kindred is entering a pivotal period in its corporate life because it has all the parts to run a true nationwide post-acute company, from hospital discharge to the home. It is the largest LTAC and inpatient rehab operator in the country, the largest provider of rehab, home health and hospice services in the country, and one of the largest subacute and skilled nursing providers. You might think that... Read More »

Seniors Housing Portfolio in New England Sells For Top Price

Nine properties in three states sell for over $500,000 per unit, more than doubling in value in 10 years. Patient capital in seniors housing can certainly reap its rewards. Take the case of Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate, which purchased nine senior living communities in New England from BayNorth Capital in 2005 for approximately $225,000 per unit. The one constant in the portfolio was Benchmark Senior Living, which was a minority co-investor with BayNorth and managed the portfolio. With the sale in 2005, they remained as the manager, and also stayed in as a co-investor. The portfolio has now been sold again, but for about $521,000 per unit. Individual properties have sold at a... Read More »

Double duty financing

We wrote last year that Virtus Real Estate Capital and PNC Bank had partnered to provide acquisition financing for LCB Senior Living to acquire two Vermont senior living communities with a total of 297 units for $80 million, or $269,400 per unit. Virtus provided $23 million in equity and PNC provided debt for the remaining $57 million. But, in that acquisition, LCB also purchased a 2.7 acre site just outside of Burlington, Vermont. And who did they turn to finance the construction of a new 102-unit IL, AL and MC community? Why, Virtus and PNC, of course. Arranged by Cushman & Wakefield, PNC provided $18.4 million in construction financing, while Virtus supplied $8.5 million in equity.... Read More »

Southwest Florida booming

REDICO, a Michigan-based real estate development and investment company, announced its next American House project, called Coconut Point, in Estero, Florida. The project is the second for REDICO in southwest Florida and will include 54 independent living units, 76 assisted living units and 64 memory care units. It’s in a prime location, as across the street is a 140-store mall, and just north of Coconut Point will be Lee Memorial Health System’s planned $140 million Estero healthcare village, which is scheduled to open in 2017. American House is based in Michigan and currently has over 40 communities open in that state, mostly in the Detroit metro area, and after it became an affiliate of... Read More »