• Did Blackstone Sell Too Soon?

    According to recent media reports, real estate investor The Blackstone Group has sold and is in the process of selling about $1.8 billion in seniors housing assets. It wants to completely exit the seniors housing business which they claim has been a disaster for them. One report stated that they have lost upwards of $600 million across the... Read More »
  • Brookdale Continues Winning Streak

    The big question is, why did this not happen earlier? We are talking about Brookdale Senior Living’s occupancy recovery, and why the previous leadership seemed unable to move the needle, but as soon as they were gone, everything has been on an upward trend. Hmmmmm.  Things are not perfect at Brookdale, but they never were. However,... Read More »
  • National Health Investors Adjusts Its SHOP Portfolio

    National Health Investors, Inc. announced some adjustments to its SHOP portfolio, raising its full-year guidance for the third consecutive quarter due to the contribution of recently transitioned and newly acquired SHOP properties, along with continued strength in its investment pipeline. The REIT also had an update on its lease agreement with... Read More »
  • Strawberry Fields’ Three Separate SNF Transactions

    Strawberry Fields REIT, Inc. announced three separate skilled nursing transactions that closed during the third quarter. Two previously announced acquisitions were in Missouri, and the recently announced purchase was in Oklahoma.  In July, the REIT completed the acquisition of nine skilled nursing facilities with 686 beds in Missouri. The... Read More »
  • Receivership Estate Sells in Alabama

    Kory Buzin and Steve Thomes of Blueprint handled another successful sale on behalf of a lender and special servicer, this time involving a receivership estate in Mobile, Alabama. Knollwood Point, a 2001-vintage, 46-unit assisted living and memory care community, struggled in recent years as a result of challenged occupancy and volatile staffing.... Read More »
The Pennant Group Debut

The Pennant Group Debut

The Pennant Group is The Ensign Group’s latest spin off. If history repeats itself, the new company will succeed. It has been three weeks since The Pennant Group was spun out of The Ensign Group as a separate publicly traded company. This is not Ensign’s first rodeo when it comes to successful spin outs. Five years ago, it spun out the majority of its real estate assets (and mostly skilled nursing) into CareTrust REIT, which has been among the leaders in shareholder return among healthcare-oriented REITs.  As Ensign grew its senior living and home health and hospice business, management decided that shareholders would benefit from higher valuation multiples if these assets were spun... Read More »
CareTrust REIT’s Central Valley Expansion

CareTrust REIT’s Central Valley Expansion

CareTrust REIT made a major expansion into California’s Central Valley, acquiring two senior care facilities in a pair of off-market transactions. The targets were a 70-bed skilled nursing facility in Modesto, and a senior care campus in Sacramento with 99 skilled nursing bed and 72 assisted living units. Both were leased to an existing CareTrust tenant, Kalesta Healthcare, LLC, under a master lease with about 14 years left on the initial term. There are also two five-year renewal options. Scheduled cash rent for the first two years is expected to be about $3.9 million with CPI-based escalators thereafter. CareTrust also committed to provide a revenue-producing $1.0 million fund for... Read More »
CareTrust REIT Adds Escondido Community to Portfolio

CareTrust REIT Adds Escondido Community to Portfolio

San Clemente, California-based CareTrust REIT acquired a memory care community in nearby Escondido (located about 20 miles north of San Diego) and retained the in-place operator Bayshire, LLC, which has managed the property for the seller since 2016. Originally built in 1981 as a skilled nursing facility, the property was converted to memory care and extensively renovated in 2015. It now includes 96 licensed beds in 52 units. Including about $100,000 in transaction costs, the REIT paid $12.6 million, or $242,300 per unit, for the recently-renovated community. Cushman & Wakefield’s team that includes Rick Swartz, Jay Wagner, Aaron Rosenzweig, Dan Baker, Tim Hosmer and Bailey Nygard... Read More »
How Have the REIT Stocks Performed in 2019?

How Have the REIT Stocks Performed in 2019?

Last week, we discussed the stock performance of the seniors housing and healthcare providers. Now, it’s the healthcare REITs’ turn. Overall, it was a good first half of the year, with all of them posting price increases, with the exception of Senior Housing Properties Trust, reflecting its Five Star problems. Its share price tumbled by 29.4%. The top performer was New Senior Investment Group, but it came off a terrible 2018 (down 45%) and still trades below what it did 18 months ago. The star of the year, so far, is CareTrust REIT which is up 28.8% after being the second-best performer last year with a price increase of 10%. And then there is HCVenTower, otherwise known as the Big Three,... Read More »
CareTrust Invests in Idaho

CareTrust Invests in Idaho

CareTrust REIT and Cascadia Healthcare expanded their relationship to 12 facilities and 1,013 total beds with the REIT’s acquisition of a brand-new transitional care facility in Nampa, Idaho. This transaction was by no means out of the blue. Cascadia’s development affiliate opened the 99-bed facility in 2017, but before that, CareTrust had made a preferred equity investment in the property in addition to obtaining a purchase option at a formula-based price upon stabilization of the operations. Fill-up must have gone smoothly, since the property sold to CareTrust for approximately $12.8 million, inclusive of transaction costs and after receiving credit for its original equity investment and... Read More »