• Regional Owner/Operator Enters New State

    A regional owner/operator looking to enter the state of Indiana acquired Smith Farms Manor, an independent living community in Auburn, about 30 miles south of the Michigan border. Built in 1998, the community features 51 units and is well maintained. It sits on an attractive four-acre campus down the street from Parkview DeKalb Hospital and off... Read More »
  • Skilled Nursing Portfolio Gets New Operator

    Evans Senior Investments secured a new lease for a skilled nursing portfolio in Tennessee on behalf of an institutional owner. The portfolio features four assets and was operating below 70% occupancy with margins under 10%. Despite that performance, ESI secured a lease $3 million above in-place cash flow, reflecting the operational upside that... Read More »
  • Seniors Housing and Care M&A Remains Elevated in Q1:26

    The number of publicly announced seniors housing and care acquisitions in the first quarter of 2026 reached 231 deals, based on new acquisition data from LevinPro LTC. This represents a 19.8% decrease from the 288 transactions disclosed in the fourth quarter of 2025, but a 25.5% increase from the 184 deals in Q1:25.   “It was always going... Read More »
  • Clarion Acquires Again in Colorado

    Two years after opening a 160-unit seniors housing community in Centennial, Colorado (Denver MSA), MorningStar Senior Living announced an expanding relationship with Clarion Partners, a leading real estate investment company and specialty investment manager of Franklin Templeton, in its acquisition of MorningStar at Holly Park. The community... Read More »
  • Brookdale’s Summer Test Ahead

    Brookdale Senior Living reported its March occupancy results, and it unfortunately took another step in the wrong direction. We will get a better read when peers report first-quarter results and when NIC MAP releases its next tranche of occupancy data, but at this point, it seems as though Brookdale will need a particularly strong performance... Read More »
60 Seconds with Ben Swett: Competition For Deals in an Active M&A Market

60 Seconds with Ben Swett: Competition For Deals in an Active M&A Market

We’re not sure we have ever seen a month like this when it seemed that institutional buyers were racing to see who could announce the biggest deal. First was Welltower’s acquisition of 22 Pathway to Living communities, then came Harrison Street’s $1.2 billion purchase of 24 Oakmont communities, then Atria Senior Living acquired Holiday Retirement and Welltower jumped back in again, acquiring Holiday’s owned portfolio of 86 properties. Next, we had the Griffin American REITs 3 and 4 merging, and finally, at least of this filming, Ventas will pay $2.3 billion to purchase New Senior Investment Group. It has been a dizzying display of strength from these institutional buyers, and we are... Read More »
60 Seconds with Ben Swett: M&A Hits a High in 2021

60 Seconds with Ben Swett: M&A Hits a High in 2021

When it rains, it pours in senior care M&A. First, we noticed a significant uptick in deal activity this month, with over 30 transactions announced since June 1st. Not December’s level of activity, but we’ll take it. Then, Harrison Street announced the largest purchase in the industry in two years, spending $1.2 billion on 24 Oakmont communities. But yesterday, when we were still digesting the sale of former SNF giant Kindred Healthcare to LifePoint, Welltower made the biggest splash of all, buying Holiday Retirement’s owned portfolio of 86 independent living properties for $1.58 billion. Not only that, but Atria Senior Living will acquire the operating business of Holiday for an... Read More »
Dissecting the Holiday Retirement Deal

Dissecting the Holiday Retirement Deal

Welltower announced the acquisition of Holiday Retirement’s owned portfolio of 86 independent living communities for $1.58 billion, or just about $152,000 per unit. Simultaneously, Atria Senior Living said that it was acquiring Holiday’s operating business for an undisclosed price. Either of these announcements would normally be major news, but they also come on the heels of Harrison Street’s $1.2 billion purchase of 24 properties operated by Oakmont Senior Living and a very busy June (so far) with more than 30 individual transactions already made public. Perhaps the tide has turned for investment activity in seniors housing and care.  The Welltower deal also represents yet another... Read More »
60 Seconds with Ben Swett: M&A Hits a High in 2021

Celebrating 30 Years

The American Seniors Housing Association has been supporting the senior living industry for 30 years now, with David Schless at the helm throughout. I fondly remember going to my first annual meeting of the American Seniors Housing Association, back when it was part of the National Multifamily Housing Council. Let’s just say it was quite smaller than it is today, and I have to say, a bit more intimate. If you attended one of those early meetings, you may remember my question to Murry Gunty of Lazard Freres, when in the 1990s he was in the middle of patching together a company that seemed very disorganized, as I outlined his various, unconnected acquisitions. I asked, “So Murry, what’s the... Read More »
A Holiday with Atria

A Holiday with Atria

Last week, as part of its earnings release, New Senior Investment Group announced that Atria Senior Living would be taking over management of 21 independent living communities managed by Holiday Retirement Corporation. From a diversification perspective, this makes great sense for New Senior because Holiday had been managing 98 of New Senior’s 103 properties. In the REIT world, that kind of tenant concentration is a no-no.   Like most owners across the country, including Atria, the New Senior portfolio has seen its occupancy drop by 690 basis points in the past year. This is much better than the average for assisted living and skilled nursing, but as we... Read More »