• Bullish Move by Welltower

    Welltower has been a growth and M&A machine under the leadership of Shankh Mitra. As of October 27, the REIT has closed or has under contract close to $14 billion of pro rata gross investments across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom this year. These include more than 700 seniors housing properties with more than 46,000 units. Not too... Read More »
  • Welltower Shatters Single-Day Dollar Volume Record

    October was already on its way to setting records for M&A activity in the seniors housing and care industry before Welltower announced the most transaction dollar volume we have ever seen in a single day when it released its third quarter earnings. A couple of the largest portfolio acquisitions took place across the pond, but the REIT also... Read More »
  • South Carolina Portfolio Trades

    Newmark has hit a rich vein of activity, announcing several closings in the last few days. First, the team sold three communities across the Greenville, South Carolina, area on behalf of Atlas Senior Living. The communities were built between 2014 and 2016 and totaled 306 units, including 108 independent living, 144 assisted living and 54 memory... Read More »
  • Blueprint Closes in Kentucky and Colorado

    Blueprint has been adding to our record-breaking October M&A haul, announcing a couple of closings in the last week. First, Kyle Hallion handled another sale in his home state of Kentucky, this time on behalf of a local family owner/operator with deep ties to this asset’s local market. The senior care facility features 64 skilled nursing beds... Read More »
  • Southern California Communities Get New Owner

    Berkadia handled the sale and financing of two seniors housing communities in Southern California. The transaction included an 84-unit assisted living and memory care community in the San Diego suburbs and a 72-unit memory care community in the Los Angeles suburbs. These were older vintage properties with some Medicaid census but were very strong... Read More »
Ventas Preparing For Worst

Ventas Preparing For Worst

There is no way to mince words. When it comes to valuation, Ventas is a shadow of its former self. After being worth more than $20 billion, its market cap has dropped to just $7.8 billion. This compares with Welltower ($15.8 billion) and Healthpeak Properties ($11.8 billion). So much for the “Big Three” REITs. This is new territory for Ventas and its CEO, Debbie Cafaro. But who knows, maybe the Penguins will win the Stanley Cup this year, if there is one.  Ventas, like Brookdale Senior Living, has withdrawn its 2020 earnings guidance. It stated that tours and move-ins at its operators are beginning to slow, even though the first two months of the year met previous expectations. What a... Read More »
Ventas Seeking Investment Partners

Ventas Seeking Investment Partners

In what we would call a change in strategy for a healthcare REIT, Ventas is launching a new “growth platform,” called the Ventas Life Science and Healthcare Real Estate Fund, L.P. They are calling it a “perpetual life vehicle” that will focus its investments in core and core-plus life science, medical office and seniors housing real estate. It will officially launch late this quarter, and it will have $700 million in assets under management, and they have third-party equity commitments for about $650 million, so far.  Ventas will be the fund sponsor and general partner, expecting to hold a 20% ownership stake and participating in the future cash flows. Ventas EVP... Read More »
Blueprint Handles Two More REIT Sales

Blueprint Handles Two More REIT Sales

The closings keep coming from Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors, as the firm has announced a series of acquisitions in the last couple weeks of the year, mainly for publicly-traded REIT clients. Ben Firestone, Michael Segal, Alex Florea and Scott Frazier first teamed up to sell an assisted living/memory care community in Escondido, California (an affluent suburb of San Diego). Previously owned by an LLC affiliated with Ventas, the community was originally built in 1986 and expanded with a new independent living building in 2006. Initially, the community offered a full spectrum of care from independent living to skilled nursing. However, the new IL building was converted to... Read More »
Of Ventas, Welltower and NIC

Of Ventas, Welltower and NIC

I know as one gets older, confusion can become more common. And today, I am a little confused about the state of the senior living industry. -Sponsored by The Senior Care Acquisition Reports   NIC MAP has reported that maybe we have hit bottom in the third quarter, and that new construction starts are starting to decline, even though new openings remain high. Assisted living occupancy, while posting a small sequential increase, still remains far too low to get excited, but bottoming out would be welcome news. Then, Ventas reported its third quarter earnings, painting a not-so-pretty picture. Their RIDEA operating portfolio has not been performing well, posting a 5.0% decline in... Read More »
Dissecting the Jump in Average Assisted Living Values

Dissecting the Jump in Average Assisted Living Values

It’s amazing the difference that one deal can make. We are talking about Welltower’s $1.76 billion sale of its entire Benchmark Senior Living portfolio to KKR and its impact on the average private per assisted living unit sold in the most recent four quarters. That sale, which came in at $425,400 per unit across the 48 properties, pushed the sector’s weighted average up to $252,900 per unit, a 23% increase from the most recent four-quarter period ($205,900 per unit) and 36% from calendar year 2018 ($186,400 per unit), according to The Seniors Housing Acquisition & Investment Report. We should note that this average is likely to change as more deals from 2019 float to the surface, and... Read More »