• 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 »

California CCRC in the works

Life Care Services (LCS), together with local companies Villaggio Communities, John Madonna Construction and RRM Design Group, announced plans to build a 350-unit entrance fee CCRC in San Luis Obispo, California (located about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco) as part of a $500 million mixed-use project that would cater to seniors. In addition to the CCRC, which would be the first in its county, the project will include between 150,000 and 350,000 square feet of commercial retail space, 200 apartments and 60-100 single-family detached homes. Villaggio Communities, a seniors housing developer, is in the process of acquiring 111 acres from John Madonna Construction. The proposed... 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 »

Two-property transaction

A private investor group recently sold their 217-unit CCRC in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, with a separate 70-unit assisted living community in Maytown, Pennsylvania, to a large publicly traded REIT for an undisclosed price. The CCRC, which consists of 13 independent living cottages, 112 independent/assisted living and memory care units and 92 skilled nursing beds, was constructed in stages from 1977 to 2014 and includes both entrance-fee and rental residents. Occupancy there stood at around 88%. The previous owners were mulling plans to construct a 168-unit independent living building on the sprawling 100+-acre property. Meanwhile, the assisted living community, built in 1999 and expanded... Read More »

HJ Sims executes $22.5 million refinance

A CCRC in Annapolis, Maryland with a securitized $17 million mortgage that did not allow a prepayment (current balance was down to $15 million) secured a bank refinance with the help of HJ Sims. The CCRC already had a history with HJ Sims, having received a $48 million construction loan and $8.4 million of development capital from them in 2001 and the $17 million mortgage in 2005. Because this mortgage was due on January 1, 2016, the CCRC had to defease the existing mortgage by escrowing all future principal and interest payments, thereby creating negative arbitrage. Plus, the CCRC had been servicing an outstanding subordinate loan from the original developers ($300,000 of which was... Read More »

CBRE arranges financing for 15-CCRC portfolio

Aron Will, Mitchell Kiffe and Matthew Whitlock of CBRE arranged $410 million in financing on behalf of NorthStar Healthcare Income and The Freshwater Group/Watermark Retirement Communities to purchase a portfolio of 15 rental and entrance fee CCRCs. The seller, Fountains Senior Living, a subsidiary of Arcapita, had previously hired Watermark as the day-to-day operator of the portfolio, which consists of six entrance-fee and nine rental CCRCs with 3,663 total units (with 2,330 independent living units, 945 assisted living units, 156 memory care units and 320 skilled nursing beds in 232 rooms). NorthStar will lease the entrance fee properties to affiliates of The Freshwater Group, pursuant... Read More »