MENASHA, WIS. — Pillar has arranged a $13.6 million HUD 232/223(f) loan for the refinancing of Oakridge Gardens Nursing Center in Menasha, five miles south of Appleton. The 143-bed skilled nursing facility is located at 1700 Midway Road. Don Husi of Pillar arranged the 30-year loan, which includes a 30-year amortization schedule. Husi also arranged a $7.2 million loan for Oakwood Terrace, an assisted living facility in Pennsylvania.
Seniors Housing
RACINE, WIS. — Evergreen Real Estate Group has acquired Durand Plaza in Racine, 25 miles south of Milwaukee. The purchase price was not disclosed. The 72-unit affordable seniors housing community is located at 3003 Durand Ave. Residents can qualify for occupancy by being either elderly or disabled. Originally constructed in 1970, the four-building property will undergo a $2 million renovation within the next six to nine months. Evergreen will make kitchen and bath upgrades to most units.
ATLANTA — Pressures for seniors housing owners come from many sources, but the top two are labor issues and increasing numbers of communities in a market, according to panelists at InterFace Seniors Housing Southeast. The comments were made during the “State of the Industry” panel at the event, which was held in late summer at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta and drew more than 400 industry professionals. Katie Davis, chief strategy officer for Sherpa, moderated the panel, which included Doug Schiffer, president and COO of Allegro Senior Living; Scott Stewart, managing partner of Capitol Seniors Housing; Joe Weisenburger, vice president of seniors housing for Welltower; Andy Isakson, managing partner at Isakson Living; and Alan Plush, president and senior partner at HealthTrust. Schiffer cited a recent time when a competing property opened near an Allegro community and immediately offered pay raises to any employee who would switch communities. “People want to mine our fort and take our staff,” said Schiffer. “Everyone was offered a $2 per hour raise, which is a 20 percent increase for some. No matter how much you like us, that’s hard to turn down.” Allegro kept most of its employees by matching the offers, but this significantly …
YAPHANK, N.Y. — An affiliate of AVR Realty Co. is developing a $27 million assisted living facility at The Reserve at the Boulevard, the company’s mixed-use development in Yaphank, in the south part of the Town of Brookhaven on Long Island. Totaling 99,492 square feet, the two-building property will feature 118 beds, including a 77-bed building for special needs and memory care and a 41-bed supportive care building. Upon completion, the facility will employ 40 full-time workers and 20 part-time workers. Yaphank AVR Boulevard Chelsea, jointly owned by AVR and Chelsea Senior Living of Fanwood, N.J., is purchasing the site from Rose-Breslin Associates. Chelsea owns and operates 13 senior housing communities in New Jersey and three communities in New York. The Town of Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency has approved a package of economic incentives for the developer.
WESTMONT, ILL. — Pathway to Living has opened Aspired Living of Westmont in suburban Chicago. The 107-unit assisted living and memory care community is located on a three-acre site at 407 W. 63rd St. Aspired Living of Westmont is the first seniors housing community in the United States to provide residents with Spark of Life, a dementia care and support program. The property features 73 independent and assisted living apartments, including studio, one- and two-bedroom units ranging in size from 400 to 1,180 square feet, as well as 34 memory care studios. The community’s common areas include a restaurant and bistro, resident lounge with demonstration kitchen, cocktail lounge, library, technology center, movie theater, art studio, salon and spa. Residents also have access to fitness options including a yoga studio, gym with personal trainers and outdoor walking paths. In addition, an on-site therapy gym offers physical, occupational and speech therapy.
Killefer Flammang Architects Completes $12M Conversion of Historic Church to Affordable Seniors Housing
by Nellie Day
LONG BEACH, CALIF. — Killefer Flammang Architects (KFA) has completed Immanuel Place, an affordable seniors housing community in the Bluff Heights Historic District of Long Beach. The $12 million project converted the 90-year-old Immanuel Church into a 31,000-square-foot, 25-unit community. Thomas Safran & Associates developed the property. The adaptive reuse project preserved the church’s stained-glass windows, pipe organ and three-story sanctuary. The development also moved an adjacent home to another area of Long Beach, making room for a parking lot. Immanuel Place was financed through a combination of Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity from Union Bank, an Infill Grant from the California State Department of Housing and Community Development, a loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), HOME Investment Partnership Program funds from the City of Long Beach/The Long Beach Community Investment Co., a loan from the Community Development Commission of the County of Los Angeles and funds from the Federal Home Loan Bank. KFA is an architecture and design firm specializing in urban infill and adaptive reuse projects. The company is based in Santa Monica, Calif.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — KeyBank Real Estate Capital has provided $12.9 million in FHA financing to the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven for Tower One & Tower East, a seniors housing property in New Haven. Built in 1969 and 1981, the apartment complex features 328 age- and incomed-restricted units. Ed Foulon of Key’s Commercial Mortgage Group arranged the financing, which features a 35-year amortization schedule, through the FHA 223(f) mortgage insurance program. Loan proceeds were used to refinance existing debt. The Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven is a non-profit, faith-based, service-oriented organization that provides continuing care and affordable housing to seniors.
IRVINE, CALIF. — Sabra Health Care REIT (NASDAQ: SBRA) has acquired 21 skilled nursing facilities in a sale-leaseback transaction with an undisclosed West Coast operator for $378 million. The Irvine-based, publicly traded REIT plans to buy the operator’s three remaining facilities before the end of the year for $52 million, for an expected total purchase price of $430 million. The acquisitions are one of several mega-deals for Sabra this year. In August, the company completed its acquisition of skilled nursing owner and former Ventas spinoff Care Capital Properties. Just last week, Sabra also announced it had agreed to buy minority interest in a 183-property portfolio of Enlivant-operated seniors housing communities for $371 million. Sabra plans to eventually acquire 100 percent interest in the portfolio. Sabra was the 21st largest owner of seniors housing in the U.S. with 74 communities and 7,624 units as of June 1, according to the American Seniors Housing Association’s 2017 tally. However, that ranking was before any of these three major acquisitions. Concurrent with the new sale-leaseback transaction, Sabra also announced that it has begun the process of marketing for sale the remaining 43 facilities that the company leases to Genesis Healthcare Inc. Sabra predicts the sales …
CBRE Arranges Construction Financing for 157-Unit Seniors Housing Community in Aliso Viejo
by Nellie Day
ALISO VIEJO, CALIF. — CBRE has arranged an undisclosed amount of construction financing for Belmont Village Aliso Viejo, a 157-unit assisted living and memory care community in Aliso Viejo, a master-planned community in the San Joaquin Hills between Los Angeles and San Diego. A joint venture between Houston-based operator Belmont Village Senior Living and Boston-based private equity firm Blue Moon Capital Partners is developing the Class A project. Belmont will operate the community once construction is completed. A development timeline was not released. Aron Will of CBRE National Senior Housing arranged the non-recourse, four-year, floating-rate loan through a regional bank.
BRUSH, COLO. — OZ Architecture has launched its design plan for phases two through four of the Eben Ezer Lutheran Care Center in Brush, located approximately 90 miles northeast of Denver. The new phases are part of a 10-step master plan for redesigning the 100-year-old seniors housing community. Phase II involves designing the new short-term rehabilitation and long-term skilled nursing facility, with the addition of two wings of 14 beds each. There will also be a small amenity node with a living room, dining room, country serving kitchen and physical therapy gym. Phase III includes the addition of a commercial kitchen, receiving areas and staff areas for maintenance and management. Phase IV will add 28 memory care units, each with access to a shared living space. Here, residents with a higher level of acuity will have access to a courtyard wandering garden and spa, with a more robust nursing component. The designs have also eliminated dead-end corridors, and increased security elements throughout. Last year, Eben Ezer selected OZ Architecture to complete the design of its two-story building. Spanning 54,000 square feet, the goal is to increase the overall capacity and elevate the design of the existing campus. The new assisted living …