• 60 Seconds with Swett: Sticks and Bricks in ’26?

    The talk around new development is getting a lot more serious in the seniors housing industry, leading us to wonder if our 2024 prediction of “Sticks and Bricks in ‘26” may actually come true, somewhat. Back then, we may have thought that interest rates would have come down a bit more by now, but that the FOMO of getting involved in seniors... Read More »
  • Wyoming SNF Sale Sets New State Record

    There was a new record set for skilled nursing pricing in the state of Wyoming with the sale of Big Horn Rehabilitation and Care Center in Sheridan. Built in the 1960s, the facility features 128 beds and was 61% occupied. It was owned by a regional operator that was looking to recycle capital.  Before the marketing process, Evans Senior... Read More »
  • Owner/Operator Acquires Facility Out of Bankruptcy

    A senior care facility in Worcester, Massachusetts, sold as part of a bankruptcy process with the help of Patrick Burke and Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage. Built in 1970, Donna Kay Rest Home features 60 licensed beds in 31 units, providing a higher level of care and supervision than assisted living but at a lesser acuity than... Read More »
  • Civitas Sells Community to Clarion

    Hap Knowles and Nick Stahler of the Knapp-Stahler Group at Institutional Property Advisors announced that they led the sale of a seniors housing community in the Phoenix, Arizona MSA, to the fast-growing real estate investment firm Clarion Partners. The deal appears to be The Retreat at Alameda, a 110-unit assisted living/memory care community in... Read More »
  • Blueprint Handles Recapitalization

    Blueprint handled the recapitalization of Forest Hills Commons, a 2017-developed, 119-unit assisted living/memory care community in the Louisville, Kentucky MSA. A Louisville-based senior living owner/operator/developer engaged Blueprint in the third quarter of 2025 to begin the process. The asset demonstrated strong in-place performance and... Read More »
MidCap Financial Closes Acquisition Debt For Healthpeak

MidCap Financial Closes Acquisition Debt For Healthpeak

MidCap Financial closed acquisition debt for another Healthpeak divestiture. Announced in May, the REIT sold five of its SHOP communities that were operated by Florida-based Sonata Senior Living. All five communities are in Florida, with locations in Delray Beach (80 units), Boynton Beach (92), Boca Raton (74), Coconut Creek (94) and Vero Beach (104). There was a total of 328 assisted living, 107 memory care and nine independent living units, and the communities averaged around 20 years in age. However, the properties were well maintained, and Healthpeak Properties had invested over $13 million of capex in the past four years.  Private equity firm Fortress Investment Group paid $64... 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 »
Merrill Gardens Buys Big

Merrill Gardens Buys Big

Merrill Gardens, known more developing seniors housing communities than acquiring them, has acquired Blue Harbor, a Portland, Oregon-based company that currently manages 21 communities in 13 states. The seller was Fortress Investment Group. For Merrill Gardens, it is somewhat of a two-fer, as Blue Harbor’s CEO, Tana Gall, is joining Merrill Gardens as its CEO, replacing David Eskenazy who announced his retirement last month. What’s more, Gall was president of Merrill Gardens from 2013 to 2015 before leaving to start her own consulting company, but was then recruited by Blue Harbor. She also worked at Leisure Care for 19 years, rising to be president there. Not a bad resume. Merrill Gardens... Read More »
All Hands On Deck For CBRE’s Latest Sale

All Hands On Deck For CBRE’s Latest Sale

CBRE had their hands full in a large Dallas-area CCRC sale, representing one of the selling entities and the buyer in the transaction, in addition to arranging a two-part acquisition financing totaling over $120 million. Totaling 1,104 rental units, which is separated out into 37% skilled nursing, 28% independent living, 24% assisted living and 11% memory care units, this portfolio was owned by Fortress Investment Group and Life Care Services, which held a lease-hold interest and operated (and will continue to operate) the communities. Properties ranged from 153 units to 267 units and were approximately 35 years old, all located in the Dallas MSA. Aspect Investment Partners, a global... Read More »
Reading the Holiday tea leaves

Reading the Holiday tea leaves

As most of you have read recently, Walker & Dunlop closed its largest loan ever (almost double the size of its $670 million financing that the company closed earlier in 2015) in the form of a $1.27 billion seven-year adjustable-rate Freddie Mac loan secured by 78 Holiday Retirement independent living properties. The financing, led by Russell Dey and Laura Beaton of W&D, comes out to approximately $144,400 per unit, which if you assume a 75% loan-to-value, is almost identical ($192,500 per unit) to the average price per unit Holiday properties have sold for in the last few years ($193,800 per unit, according to our records). Since 2013 Holiday has sold, in nine transactions, 231... Read More »