• Brookdale Boosts Short Term Stability

    Brookdale Senior Living completed a series of financing transactions totaling approximately $600 million that refinanced all of its remaining 2026 mortgage debt and maturities, around $350 million, and a portion of 2027 mortgage debt maturities, approximately $200 million. The company also secured more fixed-rate debt, helping to cut rate risk.... Read More »
  • Ikaria Announces $1 Billion in Q4 Volume

    Ikaria Capital Group closed out a successful 2025, announcing several significant transactions in the fourth quarter that exceeded $1 billion in volume. The activity comprises financings in the seniors housing, skilled nursing and behavioral health sectors across multiple states and borrowers.  The largest deal was a $595.5 million senior... Read More »
  • PE Group Enters Oklahoma after Medicaid Rate Bump

    A skilled nursing facility in Oklahoma that recently benefited from the state’s Medicaid rate bump sold to a national private equity firm looking to enter the state. Built in 1967, Maplewood Care Center features 180 beds on over three acres in Tulsa. It is located close to several major hospitals and healthcare campuses, but occupancy was sitting... Read More »
  • Community Purchased through HUD Assumption

    Chad Mundy of the Knapp-Stahler Group of Marcus & Millichap sold an 82-unit assisted living/memory care community in Lewiston, Idaho. Built in phases in the early 2000s, the community featured five separate buildings, one of which was vacant after sustaining damage from a flood. As a result, occupancy was lower, based on the 89 licensed beds,... Read More »
  • The Zett Group Rounds Out Q4

    The Zett Group closed out Q4 with several closings in the Pacific Northwest. First was the sale of Fox Hollow, a 58-unit seniors housing community in Eugene, Oregon. Built in 1988 and renovated in 2003, the community features 51 assisted living units and seven independent living “cottage-style” units. Set in a nice area of Eugene, it was owned by... Read More »
The Pennant Group Debut

The Pennant Group Debut

The Pennant Group is The Ensign Group’s latest spin off. If history repeats itself, the new company will succeed. It has been three weeks since The Pennant Group was spun out of The Ensign Group as a separate publicly traded company. This is not Ensign’s first rodeo when it comes to successful spin outs. Five years ago, it spun out the majority of its real estate assets (and mostly skilled nursing) into CareTrust REIT, which has been among the leaders in shareholder return among healthcare-oriented REITs.  As Ensign grew its senior living and home health and hospice business, management decided that shareholders would benefit from higher valuation multiples if these assets were spun... Read More »
Ensign Expands in Idaho

Ensign Expands in Idaho

The Ensign Group grew its Pacific Northwest portfolio with the purchase of a 119-bed skilled nursing facility in Rexburg, Idaho (near the Wyoming border). The facility provides speech, physical and occupational therapy, wound care and dialysis care in addition to traditional long-term care. Pennant Healthcare, Inc., Ensign’s portfolio company based in the Pacific Northwest, will take over operations. No purchase price was disclosed, but the deal included both the real estate and operations, continuing a strategy of Ensign to own more of the real estate in its portfolio. This is the company’s first Idaho deal this year, after it acquired three facilities and 244 total beds in the Gem... Read More »
Ensign Expands Again in Arizona

Ensign Expands Again in Arizona

Serial acquirer The Ensign Group just announced its 10th senior care acquisition of the year, and 20th since the start of 2018. Its latest target was a 100-bed skilled nursing facility in Surprise, Arizona. Newly built, the facility is the seventh added to Ensign’s Arizona portfolio since 2018 and its 31st overall health care property in the state. As usual for Ensign’s Arizona acquisitions, its affiliate Bandera Healthcare will take over operations at the facility. Ensign also acquired the real estate, furthering its goal to own more of the real estate in its portfolio. Read More »
Brookdale Activists Strike Again

Brookdale Activists Strike Again

We disclosed last week that activist investor Land & Buildings (L&B) had nominated Jay Flaherty, former CEO of HCP, Inc., and Jonathan Litt (founder of L&B) for board election at the 2019 annual meeting of Brookdale Senior Living. L&B has just sent an open letter to Brookdale shareholders providing more rationale for the election of these two candidates. Apparently, L&B hired Green Street Advisors to value Brookdale and its real estate assets, and to provide an opinion as to the feasibility of a PropCo/OpCo split of the company, something Litt has been pushing for quite a while now to enhance shareholder value. Not surprisingly, preliminarily they determined that... Read More »
(Most) Senior Care Provider Stocks Shine in H1:19

(Most) Senior Care Provider Stocks Shine in H1:19

[featured in the July issue of The SeniorCare Investor] With the overall stock market posting its best first half of a year since 1997, one would expect that seniors housing and care stocks would also have performed well. The major benchmarks are up 14% to 17% so far this year, and only two of the providers have topped that. Of the larger cap providers, The Ensign Group was the star with a 46.7% price increase in six months, and that was after jumping by 74.7% in calendar 2018. The company just keeps on rockin’, and when it splits into two separate operating companies later this year, one for skilled nursing and one for seniors housing and home health care, the expectation is that the... Read More »