• WOW! Sonida Senior Living Goes BIG

    Sonida Senior Living just announced what can only be described as a transformational acquisition. Since new management came in, CEO Brandon Ribar and CFO Kevin Detz, Sonida has been on an upward path of improved operations and a balance sheet that has grown stronger. Occupancy has been increasing (87.7% in Q3) and NOI and EBITDA are rising. Spot... Read More »
  • 60 Seconds with Swett: October Smashes M&A Record

    We were predicting a record-breaking end to the year in terms of M&A activity, but we are not sure we expected a 100+ deal month, with 110 transactions and counting. Just to put that in perspective, the previous record for any month was 77 deals in October of last year, and only four months had previously broken the 70-deal barrier. So this... Read More »
  • Newmark Ends October with Portfolio Closings

    Newmark announced a flurry of transactions at the end of October involving various institutional firms. The largest was a portfolio of seniors housing communities in the Northeast known as “Stars and Stripes.” Word on the street is that the portfolio sold for north of $800 million, and that a sub-portfolio was valued at more than $1 million per... Read More »
  • Stacked Stone Acquires Missouri Portfolio

    Stacked Stone Ventures announced the purchase of a seven-community assisted living/memory care portfolio in Missouri for $71 million, or $212,600 per unit. Totaling 334 units and 405 beds, the Oak Pointe portfolio was developed between 2015 and 2020 by an investor group called ClearPath Senior Housing, which included Jeff Binder of Senior Living... Read More »
  • Blueprint Sells Georgia Community to LTC Properties

    LTC Properties divested seven skilled nursing facilities through two separate deals for $122 million in October. In those transaction announcements, the publicly traded REIT noted that it intended to redeploy proceeds for the acquisition of newer, stabilized SHOP assets. It looks like that’s what the publicly traded REIT did in Georgia at the... Read More »
Cornerstone Healthcare Files For Bankruptcy Protection

Cornerstone Healthcare Files For Bankruptcy Protection

Cornerstone Healthcare, an operator of skilled nursing facilities in the Pacific Northwest, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The CEO, Will Masterson, announced the reorganization in a statement filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Western District of Washington that listed lender and lessor issues as the reason for it. Operations across the portfolio weren’t great leading up to the bankruptcy, but they certainly could have been worse. The portfolio includes 14 SNFs and one assisted living community in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, with total capacity of 1,508 beds. Occupancy was 78% based on that capacity. In the year to date through September 2019, the company generated more... Read More »
Live Oak Bank Flourishes This Summer

Live Oak Bank Flourishes This Summer

Showing off its versatility, Live Oak Bank facilitated acquisition financing for two separate, and very different, transactions. First, the bank provided a cash flow balance sheet loan to support a partner buy-out at Frontier Management. Formation Capital had owned a 50% stake in the senior living operator, but with this transaction, Frontier’s founder and CEO, Greg Roderick, became the sole owner. Established in 2000, Frontier now operates 80 communities with over 6,000 independent living, assisted living and memory care units across 12 states. Second, Live Oak Bank provided a $5 million SBA 7a loan for local operator in Utah to acquire two small assisted living communities in the town of... Read More »
Major Moves at HealthTrust

Major Moves at HealthTrust

National appraisal and advisory firm HealthTrust has had a busy month. On March 1, they closed on the purchase of the assets of the company from Sabra Health HealthCare REIT, which took over ownership as part of Sabra’s acquisition of Care Capital Properties last year. Care Capital had purchased HealthTrust when it was spun out of Ventas. Being independent once again will allow management to solidify key relationships and focus on growth. The company also announced that it hired Michael T. Jones as its Chief Financial Officer. Jones brings 20 years of seniors housing and care experience to HealthTrust, most recently serving as VP and Portfolio Manager at Care Capital Properties and also as... Read More »
HCP In Hot Water Again

HCP In Hot Water Again

We are sure that management at HCP, Inc. is happy that they spun out the HCR ManorCare assets to a new REIT, since they have not had to deal with the continuing rent shortfall, which started when HCP still owned the assets. But leveraged investments of any kind seem to be taking their toll across the board. From July 2012 through May 2015, HCP funded a total of $257 million under a collateralized mezzanine loan facility with Tandem Health Care. This loan matures in nine months and has a weighted average interest rate of 11.5% (ouch). In tandem with this loan, there is a $257 million syndicated senior loan that matures in six months. Through sales of various SNFs, most of the net proceeds... Read More »
HC-One Becomes Largest Provider in UK

HC-One Becomes Largest Provider in UK

It has been a few months since it was announced that Justin Hutchens would leave HCP, Inc. and join UK-based HC-One as its new CEO. That transition is expected to take place on October 1, and he will certainly have his hands full when he takes over from Chai Patel. HC-One just announced an agreement to acquire 122 senior care properties from Bupa Care Services, also based in the UK, for approximately £300 million, or $384 million. Over the past few months, the deal value was rumored to be in the £300 million to £450 million range, but that was for 150 properties, not the 122 that was agreed upon. Before this acquisition, HC-One was already the third-largest senior care provider in the UK,... Read More »