• 60 Seconds with Steve Monroe: Record M&A Year, Again

    You may start to get tired of hearing us talk about all the records being set, but we will never tire of it. As of November 11, we have passed last year’s record of total acquisitions in the seniors housing and care sector, now standing at over 720 deals, according to LevinPro LTC. And we thought last year was an amazing year! The good news is... Read More »
  • Regional Owner/Operator Acquires in North Carolina

    A skilled nursing facility with 130 beds recently sold in North Carolina. It was 53% occupied and not stabilized at the time of sale. According to LevinPro LTC, the purchase price was one of the highest per-bed prices we have seen in the state, at $21 million, or $161,500 per bed. The seller, a North Carolina-based owner/developer that had owned... Read More »
  • Tennessee Community Trades in Receivership Sale

    Blueprint recently announced a few closings involving a prominent lender and special services seller. The first was in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was handled by Kyle Hallion, Kory Buzin and Steve Thomes. Buzin and Thomes facilitated the second deal, selling Knollwood Point in Mobile, Alabama. The pair also sold The Pointe at Kirby Gate in... Read More »
  • Northeast-Based Owner/Operator Expands in Georgia

    Daniel Geraghty, Bradley Clousing and Nick Cacciabando of Senior Living Investment Brokerage were engaged in the sale of a skilled nursing facility with 100 beds in College Park, Georgia. At the time of sale, the facility was operating at a loss. The seller was a national owner of long-term care and seniors housing assets across the country, and... Read More »
  • Provident Bank Funds Portfolio Refinance and Recapitalization

    Tom Cassidy of Provident Bank’s Healthcare Lending team provided funding to a regional owner/operator in the Southeast. The new client, a family business, secured a $29.84 million portfolio refinance and recapitalization of four stabilized seniors housing communities in Florida. The well-performing portfolio totals more than 250 units across a... Read More »
National Health Investors Cuts Dividend

National Health Investors Cuts Dividend

Even though National Health Investors didn’t have to cut its dividend, management made the prudent decision to reduce its quarterly dividend by 18% to 90 cents a share. The yield had been at the high end of its peers at 6.6%, and now it will be 5.4%. Even though at least one analyst last week came forward saying he didn’t think a cut would be made, the market shrugged off the news, with NHI shares dropping just 1.26%. Perhaps they should have gone bigger.  Coincident with the dividend announcement, NHI also announced one of its major tenants, Holiday Retirement Corporation, was going to defer $600,000 in monthly rent for May through July. NHI will take that deferred... Read More »
National Health Investors Stabilizing

National Health Investors Stabilizing

National Health Investors (NHI) was the last of the healthcare REITs to report earnings in what was a very informative earnings season. We have already reported that the REITs and their SHOP portfolios have begun the long-anticipated turnaround as occupancy begins to rebound. Operating costs will be another matter, and it will take a few years to return to normal, whatever that is.  NHI’s three major seniors housing tenants have appeared to stabilize, at least from an occupancy perspective. Bickford Senior Living, which has been responsible for the majority of cash rent deferrals during the pandemic, boosted sequential occupancy by 180 basis points in April to 76.3%. That... Read More »
Promising Census Signs From National Health Investors Update

Promising Census Signs From National Health Investors Update

We are still waiting for that first sign that the seniors housing and care recovery has truly begun. There were some encouraging signs from Welltower’s SHOP portfolio when its census started to rise in the later weeks of March. But so far, that is it. Earlier this month, NIC reported that average occupancy at seniors housing communities fell to a new record low in the first quarter, to 78.8% from 80.6% in the fourth quarter.  National Health Investors also recently provided an update regarding its average occupancy and monthly contractual cash collections. Even though the REIT did not report an increase in census at its three major seniors housing operators, the decline has slowed... Read More »
Two REITs Close Couple of Loans

Two REITs Close Couple of Loans

A couple of REITs in good financial shape (and still open to making new investments) announced a couple of loans closed for senior care facilities. CareTrust REIT completed a $15 million secured mezzanine loan for Next Healthcare’s acquisition of a nine-property skilled nursing portfolio with approximately 1,000 beds in Virginia. The loan came with a five-year term and annual interest rate of 12%, with CareTrust funding it from its $600 million unsecured revolving credit facility. White Oak Healthcare Finance was the senior lender on the deal. Then, National Health Investors funded a $22.2 million construction loan for the development of a 110-unit senior living community in Sussex,... Read More »
Senior Care Stocks Stay High After Vaccine News

Senior Care Stocks Stay High After Vaccine News

After Pfizer’s vaccine announcement on November 9, pretty much every publicly traded senior care provider and REIT saw their share prices jump significantly. We believe that much of the exuberance was mainly from the removal of uncertainty surrounding both the vaccine and the election, but as we said earlier this month, it is not like no one thought a vaccine would not be available in the months ahead. And there was still the fact that the Pfizer vaccine needs to go through the FDA approval process, not to mention manufacturing tens of millions of doses, and then distributing them.  But we also wondered if investors had gotten a little ahead of themselves,... Read More »