• Grace Management Adds Five Ventas Communities

    Grace Management expanded its relationship with Ventas, adding five seniors housing communities owned by the REIT to its operating portfolio. The communities were previously managed under a triple-net lease structure. They include Brookdale Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, Brookdale Northbrook in Northbrook, Illinois, Brookdale Springs Mesa... Read More »
  • Seller Boosts Census Ahead of Sale to JV

    Senwell Senior Investment Advisors sold Rose Hill Retirement Community, a 66-unit, 87-bed assisted living community in Marion, North Carolina. Originally built as a hospital, Rose Hill has been transformed by the seller over the past two decades into a senior care community. After a previous attempt to sell the community was unsuccessful,... Read More »
  • Joint Venture Buys Orange County Community

    A high-end seniors housing community in Orange County sold with the help of CBRE National Senior Housing. Aron Will and John Sweeny represented the joint venture seller in the deal, while Will and Matthew Kuronen arranged acquisition financing from a national bank. The loan came with a four-year term, a full term of interest only and a floating... Read More »
  • Developer Secures Construction Financing

    JLL Capital Markets arranged a $47 million construction financing for The Arbella at Blue Hills, a 164-unit, active adult community to be developed in Bloomfield, Connecticut. JLL worked on behalf of the developer, The United Group of Companies, Inc. (United Group) to secure the construction loan through Liberty Bank of Middletown, Connecticut.... Read More »
  • Midwest-Based Operator Refinances AL/MC Communities

    MONTICELLOAM, LLC, along with firm affiliates, provided a $28.5 million senior bridge financing for two Midwest seniors housing communities. The financing was originated by Karina Davydov, Senior Managing Director, Originations. The sponsor, a Midwest-based operator with a portfolio of over 40 seniors housing and healthcare properties and a... Read More »
NIC, Valuations and Big Deals

NIC, Valuations and Big Deals

Join me Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 pm as I moderate the NIC Valuations session. By the time you are watching this, I will be walking around the meeting rooms, receptions, and various sessions at the NIC Conference. And please join me today at 4:00 pm as I am moderating the session on valuations called, “What’s It Really Worth?” If you want to find out the answer, join us. But it is a very good question in today’s market, where capital is still abundant, but the 10-year Treasury rate has doubled in a year and a half. Occupancies are still weak across the board, but there are plenty of providers producing a healthy amount of cash flow. The minimum wage is rising across the country, but that... Read More »
Seniors Housing Occupancy Woes

Seniors Housing Occupancy Woes

Recent third quarter data was not promising, but are we looking at the wrong numbers? When NIC released its occupancy stats last week, people were hoping for good news. Hope, however, is not a business plan. The third quarter has historically been a “make-up” quarter, making up for the usual dismal first quarter and the now not-so-good second quarter. It didn’t happen this year, and as we head into the flu season, that is very troubling. What may be more troubling is that in the top 31 MSAs, assisted living unit growth is still at its highest levels since before 2006. And while moderating, assisted living construction as a percent of inventory is still higher than it has been in 13 years.... Read More »
Missing Out On Bad News

Missing Out On Bad News

A vacation is a horrible thing when bad news hits the market. It is a horrible thing to go on vacation when all sorts of things are happening in the market, but such was the case last week. What I missed was the roll-out of earnings and the very disappointing occupancy numbers. For some, they were worse than the weak results posted for the second quarter by NIC. The ubiquitous villain was the tail of last winter’s flu season. But it seems the seniors housing sector is surviving on a two steps backward, one step forward cycle, and not making up much ground. What still amazes me is that the warning signs were there in abundance well over a year ago, yet too many people ignored them. Leading... Read More »
Missing Out On Bad News

No Deal For Brookdale Senior Living Yet

Brookdale Senior Living remains in a rut, and the Chinese option may be disappearing. For some reason, Brookdale Senior Living has kept out of the news recently, which is a good thing. What’s not so good is that its share price continues to be stuck in a rut. What also is not so good is that with the recent second quarter occupancy numbers out of NIC, we have to assume that given Brookdale’s size, their occupancy levels contributed to the downward trend in occupancy. Also not good. Everyone continues to wait on news of a buyer for Brookdale to come forward. The Chinese card seems to be disappearing given that the U.S. authorities are scrutinizing Chinese sponsored acquisitions more... Read More »

Seniors Housing Occupancy Weakens

NIC announced their second quarter occupancy and development trends, and unfortunately it was not pretty. After a first quarter which suffered from the ubiquitous flu season census declines, we had expected, at worst, a small sequential decline in the second quarter, but perhaps a small 10 to 20 basis point uptick, maybe even better. For majority assisted living in the top 31 MSAs, for those properties open for two years (stabilized properties) average occupancy dropped 50 basis points from the first quarter to 88.9%, but down 80 basis points from the year-ago quarter. Historically, the average second quarter sequential decline is 10 basis points, and the current 50 basis point drop was... Read More »