(Masonic Village at Lafayette Hill – Photo courtesy of Masonic Villages)

Construction: Planned

Immanuel Lutheran Communities Plans Senior Housing Community for Montana

Not-for-profit organization Immanuel Lutheran Communities, in partnership with Mountain Plains Equity Group, have developed plans to build a new senior living apartment complex on 4.2 acres at 41 Meridian Court near downtown Kalispell in Montana.

Dubbed Timber Meadows, the two-story complex will consist of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments for qualified, independent seniors who are on a limited income.

Each apartment will include a balcony, storage and a private enclosed garage, while community amenities will include a fitness room, a library, a common area with a fireplace and kitchen and an outdoor seating area with fire pit.

Immanuel Lutheran is partnering with the Mountain Plains Equity Group to apply to the Montana Board of Housing for federal income tax credits to build the project.

The Board will announce tax-credit recipients in January, Immanuel Lutheran Communities stated in a release.

Construction: In process

ClearPath Senior Holdings Bringing $7.4 Million Project to Missouri

St. Louis-based ARCO Construction Co. Inc. this week announced it is building a new $7.4 million senior living community in Carthage, Missouri for ClearPath Senior Holdings, a developer of private-pay senior living communities also based in St. Louis.

The companies broke ground on the 37,000-square-foot community in June, but officially commemorated the start of construction at a groundbreaking on August 20.

Upon completion in May 2016, Oak Pointe of Carthage will have a total of 46 apartments, 33 units dedicated to assisted living and 13 dedicated to memory care. Floor plan mix includes studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Oak Pointe’s assisted living apartments will feature kitchenettes and ample closet space, individual climate control and will be pet-friendly.

The memory care wing will provide an individualized environment with social activities and programs designed to help keep residents with cognitive impairment engaged and active.

Other amenities include a wellness center with space for physician visits and therapy services, courtyard and garden areas, a crafts and hobby room, a full-service beauty and barber salon.

Partnering with ARCO on the construction of Oak Pointe is GMA Architects; Anderson Engineering, civil engineering; and KPFF, structural engineering.

The community will be managed an operated by St. Louis-based operator Provision Living.

Oak Pointe of Carthage will be located at 300 West Airport Road and is one of three senior living communities currently being built by ClearPath and ARCO in southwest Missouri, and the companies’ sixth in the state.

Last month, ClearPath and ARCO broke ground on a similar project in Neosho, Missouri, about 25 miles south of Carthage, and plans call for another groundbreaking in October in Monett, Missouri.

Construction: Completed

Thrive Senior Living, PinPoint Commercial Celebrate Grand Opening of Tampa Community

Atlanta-based Thrive Senior Living recently celebrated the grand opening for one of its newest communities, Legacy at Highwoods Preserve Assisted Living and Memory Care in Tampa, Fla.

The two-story community will provide “top-tier” services for 60 assisted living residents and 22 memory care residents, Thrive stated in a release on the community’s opening.

Managed by Thrive, Legacy at Highwoods Preserve was developed by PinPoint Commercial of Houston, Texas.

Action Pact Opens New ‘Household Model’ Community in Kansas City

An organization recognized for developing and promoting the Household Model of senior housing services, Action Pact is bringing this home-like approach to Kansas City, Kan. via The Piper.

The Piper is architecturally designed to be warm, welcoming and homey. Here, residents live in private apartments, each of which has its own kitchen, living area and bathroom.

The apartments open to a larger household similar in size and features of a family home for up to 20 members, including an open kitchen, dining room, living room, den and four-season room. This approach creates a “home within a home” experience, says Action Pact.

In all, there are six independent households, each embracing 20 private apartments.

The Piper was developed and built by Assisted Living Associates, a partnership between PAR Development, Clarkson Construction Company and Action Pact.

Sun Health Finishes Assisted Living Addition to Arizona Post-Acute Facility

Grandview Terrace Health and Rehabilitation by Sun Health has finished building an upscale 20-suite residence for up to 30 people who need assistance with activities of daily living.

The second floor of the two-story residence features one two-bedroom, 13 one-bedroom and six studio suites, each with a kitchenette, full bath and ample closet space. The one- and two-bedroom suites also feature a living room.

Also located on the second floor is a fireplace lounge, a business center, several gathering spaces, a community kitchen and a fitness area.

On the ground level is a Starbucks cafe, a gift shop, movie theater, chapel/library, spa and salon area, as well as a restaurant-style dining room and large multipurpose room. A physician-staffed health clinic is also housed on the first floor.

Grandview Terrace’s assisted living project is the last phase of a multi-million dollar, top-to-bottom renovation of the Grandview Terrace Health and Rehabilitation campus—previously known as Grandview Care Center.

A skiled nursing unit, a sub-acute rehab unit and an indoor therapy pool in the rehabilitation department were remodeled, and construction crews also built a 16-suite memory support residence, designed specifically for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

The design-build team for the project consisted of The Weitz Company (contractor); Orcutt-Winslow Partnership (architect); HilgartWilson (civil engineering); and Thoma-Holec Design (interior design).

Masonic Villages Completes $20 Million Expansion, Renovation Project

Pennsylvania-based Masonic Villages announced this week that it has completed a $20 million expansion and renovation project at the Masonic Village at Lafayette Hill, located 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia, which includes 60 new apartments.

The 96,000-square-foot addition and new apartments brings the total number of residences on the campus to 158. The community also offers 38 personal care residences and 60 nursing care suites.

The new building includes one- and two-bedroom apartment floor plans ranging in size from 800- to 1,120-square-feet. Connected to the original building, the addition provides indoor access to amenities and activities throughout the campus such as two restaurants, an in-house bowling alley, a woodshop and a wellness center.

Renovation included updated the building’s original facade for a more contemporary look and increasing the parking areas on campus. Sustainable practices were also incorporated into the building, including LED lighting, high-efficiency heat pumps and boilers/chillers, and low emissions carpet and paint.

Work was completed by Warfel Construction Co. and designed by RLPS Architects.

Bridges by EPOCH Now Open in Westwood, Mass.

A memory care assisted living community in Massachusetts, Bridges by EPOCH at Westwood welcomed its first residents on August 18, the company announced this week.

The community is a joint collaboration between EPOCH Senior Living and National Development, a real estate and investment firm with senior housing expertise.

Located at 140 University Ave. in Westwood, and adjacent to University Station, the new two-story community includes 64 suites with four different floor plans and is designed exclusively for residents with memory impairment.

Soothing lighting, decor and colors, tall ceilings, wide spaces and plenty of windows for natural light, as well as an enclosed courtyard are just some of the features at Bridges by EPOCH at Westwood. The community also features a partially covered, furnished, open-air deck on the second story for use and enjoyment by residents.

The architect for the Westwood community is CBT of Boston and the interior design was developed by architectural firm JSA Inc. of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Cranshaw Construction of Newton, Mass., was the general contractor.

Erickson Living Debuts New Residential Building at Ashby Ponds CCRC

Magnolia Place, a new independent living building at Ashby Ponds, an Erickson Living CCRC, officially opened and is now home to the community’s newest residents.

Magnolia Place is a four-floor, 161,000-square-foot building that includes 83 independent living apartment homes featuring 13 of Ashby Ponds’ most popular one- and two-bedroom floor plans.

New residents will enjoy covered, underground parking, a large courtyard, pond and tree-lined views. Within the apartment homes, amenities include stainless steel kitchen appliances, granite countertops, open floor plans, upgraded lighting and flooring options, as well as fully-sized, side-by-side, washers and dryers. Many of the apartment homes also feature an outdoor living space with a screened-in porch or a patio.

As of this posting, over 90% of the apartment homes at Magnolia Place are currently reserved and will be home to new residents by the end of summer, said Holly Henderson, director of sales at Ashby Ponds, in a written statement.

Affordable Senior Housing Community in Ohio Earns LEED Gold

Chimes Terrace Apartments, a newly renovated property in the village of Johnstown, Ohio, has received a LEED Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Chimes Terrace offers 36 one-bedroom independent living apartments and 24 units of assisted living in a location conveniently located near supermarkets, banks, pharmacies, restaurants, retail, services, houses of worship and in close proximity to transit stops and a park.

Features contributing to the LEED Gold certification include ENERGY STAR refrigerators and bath exhaust fans; CFL and LED lighting; 100% drought-tolerant landscaping; low water use plumbing fixtures; reuse of the existing building foundation, wall and roof framing; and allergen-reducing MERV 8 air filters and Green Label Plus carpet that contribute to healthy indoor air quality.

Cincinnati-based Sol design + consulting provided energy consulting and green building certification services for the 60-unit project, which was developed and is operated by National Church Residences, designed by Berardi + Partners and built by Ruscilli Construction.

Written by Jason Oliva

The post In the Pipeline: Senior Housing Construction Projects (8/20/15) appeared first on Senior Housing News.

(Rendering of Westminster of Dallas — Photo courtesy of Riverwood Retirement Management Inc.)

Editor’s note: Senior Housing News will be observing the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 7, but will return to our normal posting schedule Tuesday, September 8. In the meantime, everyone here at SHN would like to wish all of our readers a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.

Construction: Planned 

Riverwood Retirement Management Picked for New ‘Westminster’ Community

Orange City, Fla.-based management and consulting firm for retirement and senior living communities Riverwood Retirement Management Inc. has been chosen to manage Westminster of Dallas in Georgia.

This will be the third Westminster branded community in the Southeast, but the first in Georgia. The 43,600-square-foot memory care community will serve nearly 50 residents.

The construction and design of the community is being taken into consideration to create optimal conditions for those living with memory impairment—from the skylights that will provide natural light in the 19-foot grand foyer and dining and activity rooms, to the residents bathrooms that will be floor-lit at night for safety.

Handrails will also be placed throughout the one-story community to promote mobility and independent, along with special slip-resistant flooring that eliminates glare and minimizes the risk for potential falls.

Two separate, secure walking trails aim to encourage residents to enjoy the outdoors and stay physically active among vegetable gardens, butterfly bushes and hummingbird feeders.

CDH Partners will design the community with Beacon Construction Company.

The project’s design will have an “old world” architectural style with a wood frame building and Dutch hip roof lines, among other distinctive features meant to create a timeless scheme, Riverwood stated in a press release.

Also featured on campus will be common areas, a formal dining room and a commercial kitchen, as well as activity rooms on each wing, a beauty/barber shop, private chapel, laundry room and library with a computer station. The dining rooms will feature aquariums and bird sanctuaries.

Construction and the groundbreaking process will begin within the next two months, and the community is scheduled to be completed and open in late 2016.

Montana CCRC Plans Five-Year $45 Million Expansion, Redevelopment

In response to a growing need for senior living options, Immanuel Lutheran Communities announced this week a campus redevelopment project at its existing Buffalo Hill Terrace continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Kalispell, Mont.

The redevelopment will include 36 new independent living residences at The Villas at Buffalo Hill, along with an auditorium/chapel, pool, fitness center, salon/spa, under building parking, a dining room, as well as a coffee bar and lounge.

The project will include the addition of 24 assisted living apartment residences for individuals with memory loss, a memory care garden and updates to the existing skilled nursing portion of the community.

Redevelopment plans will also expand the Retreat at Buffalo Hill to include new residences for short-stay therapy services and a new 2,000-square-foot rehabilitation and therapy center.

Immanuel Lutheran Communities estimates the total cost for the entire campus expansion and renovation will be $45 million. The project, which will be rolled out in phases over a five-year period, begins spring 2016.

The nonprofit senior living provider has named CJMW Architecture of Winston-Salem, N.C., and MMW Architects of Missoula as architectural partners on the project.

Additional partners include local contractor Swank Enterprises; Sawgrass Partners, a senior living developer and advisor based in Illinois; local engineering company Morrison Maierle; Nashville-based interior design firm Studio 121; and Corsi Associates, a foodservice consulting firm based in Pa.

The redevelopment project arrives on the heels of an announcement in August that Immanuel Lutheran Communities plans to develop Timber Meadows, a new apartment community for seniors near downtown Kalispell.

Seniority, Zenith Capital to Build $23.5 Million Assisted Living Community

Seniority Inc. and Seattle-based Zenith Capital announced Thursday their plans to built a new $23.5 million, 98-unit assisted living and memory care community in Covington, Wash.

Covington Assisted Living and Memory Care Community will be located at 17006 SE Wax Road in Covington. It’s 98 units will include 64 for assisted living and 34 for memory care.

Construction will begin on the three-acre development parcel in the second quarter of 2016, with an anticipated opening slated for summer 2017.

When completed, Seniority, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABHOW, will operate the facility.

A portion of the project’s overall financing will come from the U.S. Government’s EB-5 immigrant investor program. There will also be additional equity partners investing into the project as well.

Quality Senior Living to Build New ‘Blake’ Community in La.

Quality Senior Living, along with Blake Management Group, plan to build a new “Blake” community in Bossier City, La., the companies announced late last week.

The Blake at Bossier City will offer independent living, assisted living and memory care, and will be located near Airline Drive, which the companies note is convenient to people who live in both Bossier City and Shreveport.

Independent living floor plan option will include two-bedroom residences with full kitchens, while options for assisted living residences include studio to two-bedroom, two-bath apartments with walk-in closets, full kitchens and a balcony or porch. Memory care options include studio and one-bedroom residences with walk-in closets.

Pricing will be based on serve needs and apartment selection. While there is no “buy-in” fee, Quality Senior Living noted that assisted living monthly rates start as low as $2,500.

As for amenities, The Blake at Bossier City will provide elegant dining options, concierge service, 24-hour nurse staffing and an active social program.

Other amenities include fine dining, casual dining, a full-service bar and lounge, full-serve coffee shop and ice cream parlor, salon services, outpatient physical therapy, a sunlit chapel, custom putting greens and outdoor activity courts, a full-feature theater room, activity rooms, landscaped courtyards with an outdoor fire pavilion, fountains and raised gardens, a business center, library, internet cafe, indoor/outdoor dining, fitness center, massage and spa services, transportation and on-site parking.

Dallas-based Arrive Architecture Group is providing architectural design for the development.

Civitas Senior Living Plans Texas Memory Care Project

Fort Worth, Texas-based Civitas Senior Living recently announced plans for a new memory care community in Frisco, Texas.

Opening December 2015, La Fontaine will be the fourteenth development property in the Civitas’ portfolio.

The community is located near the Centennial Medical Center and across from La Fontaine’s sister community, Stonemere Rehabilitation Center.

La Fontaine will provide 28 memory care units, and will feature amenities that include a beauty salon, two courtyards with fountains and plant-able gardens, walking trails and radiant heated flooring in all bathrooms.

The construction company for the project is Rosco Construction.

Concordis Senior Living Moves Forward with Planned 120-Unit Community

Ocala, Fla.-based Concordis Senior Living plans to break ground on a 120-unit senior living community in La., reports Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.

Concordis recently received final approval from the Metro Council to develop the two-story community on a vacant 4.5-acre land tract on Siegen, south of Perkins Road intersection.

Plans call for one- and two-bedroom apartments, as well as studios. Unit mix consists of 76 units for assisted living and 44 apartments contained in two neighborhoods for memory care residents.

When complete, Concordis will manage the facility, which is one of four communities it plans to build over the next year in Louisiana, Texas and Florida.

Construction: In process

Walsh Construction Breaks Ground with Senior Lifestyle Corp. 

Chicago-based Senior Lifestyle Corp. and Walsh Construction are breaking ground this month on The Sheridan of Green Oaks, a new senior living community located in Libertyville, Ill.

Developed on a 33-acre site with design partner SAS, The Sheridan of Green Oaks consists of 212,326-square-feet of living space, broken out into 198 total units of independent living, assisted living and memory care units.

Broken down by housing type, the campus includes 78 independent living units, 64 units of assisted living and 56 memory care units.

Amenities include a fitness center, art studio, internet cafe, library, multi-purpose room, card room, bar/lounge, dining, a beauty salon, wellness center, physical therapy room, private dining area, living rooms and two fully landscaped exterior courtyards.

The Sheridan of Green Oaks marks the tenth project where Walsh has teamed with Senior Lifestyle as the company’s construction partner over the past 15 years.

Silverado Dedicating Site for New Memory Care Community

Next week, Silverado will hold a site dedication ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new memory care community in Bellingham, Wash.

Silverado Bellingham will be a 41,000-square-foot, single-story community that will serve up to 80 people living with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other memory-impairing conditions.

Over the next year, Silverado said in a release that it will spend more than $10 million locally toward the development of the new community, which is expected to open in late 2016.

The multimillion-dollar community is being constructed on four acres and will include state-of-the-art design elements throughout the living space, including skylights and sunrooms to draw in natural light and warmth, and living areas that will provide residents with comfortable spaces for social interaction.

Also incorporated into the design are a coffeehouse style bistro, beauty salon, country store and spa. Additionally, a large outdoor courtyard, with its covered patios and walkways, aim to encourage residents to move freely among the gardens.

Silverado is working with local teams, including architect James Brown with Wattenbarger Architects; local civic engineer Craig Parkingson with Cascade Engineering; and Dawson Construction Inc. as a project consultant.

Construction: Completed

National Church Residences Earns LEED Certification for St. Louis Senior Apartments

National Church Residences Telegraph Road, a senior living apartment community in St. Louis, recently obtained LEED Platinum rating, the highest level of certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The three-story building has 45 one-bedroom apartments serving income-qualified older adults on a site located within walking distance of community resources for shopping, banking, health care and transit stops—a significant benefit from a green building perspective.

But it is the communities implementation of energy-efficient design and appliances that heavily factored into the certification for LEED, an acronym for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design.

Features like HVAC systems include high-efficiency heat pumps and ENERGY STAR rated heat recovery ventilators, refrigerators, dishwashers and lighting packages.

Other green building features contributing to the development’s LEED Platinum rating includes 96% of the lot being designed for storm water infiltration; drought tolerant landscaping that provides a 31% reduction in irrigation demand; WaterSense plumbing fixtures to minimize water consumption; no VOC paint; low VOC adhesives and sealants; Green Label Plus carpet; and formaldehyde-free composite wood designed to ensure healthy indoor air quality.

Cincinnati-based Sol design + consulting provided energy consulting and green building certification services for the National Church Services Telegraph Road community. Design was provided by St. Louis Design Alliance.

Written by Jason Oliva

The post In the Pipeline: Senior Housing Construction Projects (9/3/15) appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Chartwell Acquires Five Premier Ontario Residences for C$254 Million

Chartwell Retirement Residences, Canada’s largest owner and operator of seniors housing, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire five premier retirement residences in Ontario, Canada, for an aggregate purchase price of C$254 million from five distinct groups of vendors.

The properties include Hollandview Trail Retirement Community in Aurora; The Rockcliffe Retirement Residence in Ottawa; St. Clair Beach Retirement Community in Tecumseh; Oak Ridges Retirement Community in Richmond Hill; and Clair Hills Retirement Community in Waterloo.

“This transaction is fully in line with our strategy to expand our portfolio with new, high-quality properties, located in strong and growing markets,” said Vlad Volodarski, Chartwell’s chief financial officer and chief investment officer. “Including this transaction, in 2015 we have invested C$586.9 million in accretive acquisitions in Canada and have announced, together with our partners, over C$300 million in development projects. While we have substantially completed reinvestment of the net proceeds from the recent sale of our U.S. portfolio, we maintain ample balance sheet capacity and continue our work on sourcing and evaluating other acquisition and development opportunities.”

Chartwell is an unincorporated, open-ended trust that indirectly owns and operates a full range of seniors housing communities, from independent supported living through assisted living to long-term care. More than 25,000 seniors live in Chartwell communities, and the company has over 13,500 employees in its more than 180 retirement and long-term care residences.

Hollandview Trail Retirement Community is a 125-suite residence located in Aurora that includes a dedicated 37-suite assisted living unit. The building, which opened in 2009, is currently 98% occupied.

The 127-suite Rockcliffe Retirement Residence, which opened in 2008, includes a dedicated 17-suite assisted living unit. The residence is presently 100% occupied. 

St. Clair Beach Retirement Community is a 115-suite independent supportive living residence located on the shores of Lake St. Clair in Tecumseh. The building opened in 2013 and is presently 98% occupied.

Oak Ridges Retirement Community is a 129-suite residence located in Richmond Hill that features a dedicated 19-suite assisted living unit. The building, which opened in 2012, is currently 76% occupied.

Clair Hills Retirement Community is a 120-suite residence located in Waterloo. The property has a dedicated 20-suite assisted living unit. The building opened in 2012 and is currently 74% occupied.

Oak Ridges and Clair Hills will initially be owned by two limited partnerships in which vendors’ affiliates will retain interests. Signature Retirement Living Corp., an affiliate of the vendors, is set to continue to manage these properties until Dec. 31, 2018, under management contracts with Chartwell. The vendors provided Chartwell with a yearly Net Operating Income guarantee during the Initial Term. Upon expiration of the Initial Term, Chartwell is set to acquire the vendors’ interests in the limited partnerships and assume management of these properties. The purchase price for the vendors’ interests in the partnerships will be based on the actual results achieved by these properties during the last year of the Initial Term.

Chartwell expects to use its available cash and its credit facility to finance the cash portion of the aggregate purchase price and closing costs, which are estimated at C$5.7 million. The closing of the transaction, subject to normal closing conditions, is anticipated to occur this November.

The Ensign Group Purchases Skilled Nursing Facilities in California, South Carolina, Arizona 

The Ensign Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENSG), the parent company of the Ensign group of skilled nursing, rehabilitative care services, assisted living, hospice care, home health care and urgent care companies, announced that its subsidiary has acquired the underlying real estate of Somerset Subacute and Rehabilitation, a skilled nursing facility with 46 beds in El Cajon, California. A subsidiary of Ensign has been operating the facility since December 2014 as part of a long-term lease.

The acquisition became effective on November 1, 2015.

In different transactions on the same day, Ensign announced that it acquired two skilled nursing facilities in Arizona and the operations and real estate of a skilled nursing facility in West Columbia, South Carolina — its first operation on the East Coast. Both transactions also went into effect on Nov. 1, 2015.

Specifically, The Ensign Group announced that its subsidiaries acquired the real estate and operations of Millennium Post Acute Rehabilitation, a skilled nursing facility with 125 beds in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Ensign’s subsidiaries also acquired Shea Post Acute Rehabilitation Center, a 105-bed skilled nursing facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Chandler Post Acute and Rehabilitation, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility in Chandler, Arizona.

The prices of the acquisitions were not disclosed.

These acquisitions bring Ensign’s growing portfolio to 182 skilled nursing and assisted living operations, 29 of which are owned. Ensign’s portfolio also includes 15 home health agencies, 14 hospice agencies, three home care businesses and 17 urgent care clinics across 14 states.

Christopher Christensen, Ensign’s president and CEO, said Ensign continues to see a very healthy pipeline for growth opportunities in new markets and within its existing footprint. Christensen also indicated that the organization is actively seeking several additional transactions to acquire real estate and to lease both struggling and well-performing skilled nursing, assisted living and other healthcare-related businesses.

NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. and NorthStar Realty Europe Corp. Announce Completion of Spin-Off of European REIT

NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. (NYSE: NRF) and NorthStar Realty Europe Corp. (NYSE: NRE) jointly announced the successful completion of the spin-off of NorthStar Realty’s European real estate business, NRE.

NorthStar Realty, a diversified commercial real estate company that is organized as a REIT and is managed by an affiliate of NorthStar Asset Management Group, also announced the effectiveness of its previously announced one-for-two reverse stock split.  

Starting with the opening of trading on Nov. 2, NorthStar Realty’s common stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange on a split-adjusted basis under the ticker symbol “NRF,” and it will have a new CUSIP number: 66704R 803.

On Nov. 2, NRE will also start regular trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “NRE”.  

Additionally, NRE will be added to the MSCI U.S. REIT Index (RMZ), effective once the market closes on Nov. 2.

“NRE currently has a portfolio of high-quality predominately office properties located across top European markets, including London, Paris and Frankfurt and we believe it is well-positioned for continued strong growth with the pipeline of opportunities we are seeing across Europe,” said David T. Hamamoto, chairman. “We remain focused on seeking additional opportunities to further unlock value for our stockholders.”

National Church Residences Completes Sale of Ocean View Senior Apartments to BRIDGE Housing

The largest nonprofit provider of affordable senior housing in the United States, National Church Residences, has completed the sale of Ocean View Senior Apartments to BRIDGE Housing, a California-based nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing. 

The price of the transaction was not disclosed.

National Church Residences acquired the 100-unit Ocean View Senior Apartments in 2000 at the request of the city of Pacifica, California, with the intention of sustaining the property’s affordability.

Recently, National Church Residences had been pursuing a refinancing of Ocean View to address capital needs and repay two maturing loans. 

“We determined it was in the best interest of the Ocean View community to engage a mission-minded partner like ourselves with the local presence needed to execute new financing terms and oversee the rehabilitation,” said Steve Bodkin, chief operating officer, housing, National Church Residences.

The organization reached out to BRIDGE Housing, which creates, owns and manages a variety of high-quality, affordable homes for seniors and working families.

BRIDGE is set to begin renovations next month with new financing in place, including tax-exempt bonds, additional funding through California Housing Finance Agency, restructuring of existing debt with the San Mateo County and the Housing Endowment and Regional Trust (HEART), and the addition of low-income housing tax-credit equity.

The renovations are expected to replace aging building elements and systems with higher-performing and more efficient alternatives, enhance and restore the physical condition of the building, and ultimately enhance residents’ quality of life. 

The recapitalization also provides funding to enhance on-site services. Residents will have access to programs such as nutrition and wellness classes and referral services, for free. 

Additionally, all current residents will be able to stay in their units for the long term, and new deed restrictions have been placed on the property to guarantee rent restrictions will continue for 55 years.

Ocean View is affordable to seniors whose annual incomes range from about $14,928 to $84,500 (minimum income standard to 80% of Area Median Income, depending on household size), however 31 apartments will have additional subsidy provided by the Housing Authority of the County of San Mateo to serve individuals with lower incomes.

National Church Residences, headquartered in Upper Arlington, Ohio, has 340 communities in 28 states and Puerto Rico.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson

The post Senior Housing Investments & Transactions: Chartwell, Ensign appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Would you convert senior housing units into assisted living, if doing so would lead to refinancing problems down the line?

In the past, some providers faced this choice. But that has changed, thanks to new rules under a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program.

The Assisted Living Conversion Program (ALCP) provides grants to nonprofit owners to convert a portion of their units into an assisted living facility. Previously, properties that received ALCP grants were blocked from using FHA mortgage insurance through HUD’s Sec. 223(f) and Sec. 221(d)(4) programs.

Now, lenders can tap these HUD programs to refinance or rehabilitate properties that have undergone a conversion through ALCP, so long as less than 75% of its units and residents receive assisted living services. They no longer have to fear that if they utilize ALCP to expand assisted living, future renovations or refinancings on the property will have to financed through non-HUD channels.

“A number of attempts over the years to refinance or recapitalize have been very complicated,” Ryan Miles, a senior vice president of specialty investment bank Lancaster Pollard, tells Senior Housing News. “From a lender’s side, it opens up a good deal of pent-up demand for work that needs to happen on these projects. It’s going to allow us to make the whole building accommodate all residents’ needs, rather than just a small portion.”

The barriers proved difficult to overcome, Miles says, requiring owners to split their HUD debt into two different ownership structures and pay significant legal fees to do so. Even then, very few refinances or recapitalizations were actually achieved.

“Those that [Lancaster Pollard] has talked to in the past were told there was nothing we could do for them,” Miles tells SHN.

Expanding the Program

Since 2000, HUD has provided 125 ALCP grants to more than 80 seniors housing properties, disqualifying them all for FHA insurance programs. The new guidelines, though, give nonprofit operators the ability to stay within HUD’s programs rather than seek out capital elsewhere, Miles says.

National Church Residences, a nonprofit provider of affordable housing for seniors ranked No. 30 on the 2015 LeadingAge Ziegler 150, received its first ALCP grants in 2008. These were to convert 34 units into assisted living at Hopeton Village in Chillicothe, Ohio and 32 units at Portage Trial Village in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. National Church Residences went on to apply for and receive two more ALCP grants in 2009 to incorporate more assisted living at each of the Ohio properties.

In total, National Church Residences received eight awards for six properties. However, ALCP limitations steered the provider away from the program in its recent projects—a scenario that could have been different had the new changes been implemented sooner.

“Our last two projects, we didn’t go through ALCP because of refinancing problems we had in the past,” Eric Walker, director of affordable housing development with National Church Residences, tells SHN. “Looking back now, we might have done things a little differently.”

By opening ALCP grantees to further HUD options, Miles says such discouragement can be avoided.

“The guidance finally provides proactive owners who have utilized ALCP grants access to the many benefits of HUD financing and ensures that the future capital needs of the entire building can be met,” Miles wrote in October.

Written by Kourtney Liepelt

The post Financing Without Fear: Program Expands Senior Housing Lending Options appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Capital One Named Top Lead Arranger for Health Care Leveraged Loans Up to $1 Billion

Capital One has been named the No. 1 lead arranger for health care leveraged loans up to $1 billion in size, according to Thomson Reuters.

The acquisition of GE Capital’s Healthcare Financial Services lending business, which held the top spot for the past three years, propelled the newly combined Capital One Healthcare organization to lead the industry with more than $11 billion in total outstanding balances, according to a news release. Capital One Healthcare finances acquisitions, recapitalizations, working capital needs and funding early-stage commercialization efforts across 45 health care sub-sectors, including long-term care.

“2015 was truly a landmark year as we united two exceptional teams,” Capital One Healthcare President Darren Alcus said in a prepared statement. “We’re excited about the opportunities this will create as we bring together a best-in-class group of domain experts and continue to deliver critical financial solutions for our clients.”

National Equity Fund Partners with National Church Residences for $50 Million Affordable Housing Investment Fund

National Equity Fund (NEF), a syndicator of low income housing tax credits, has partnered with not-for-profit affordable senior living provider National Church Residences to establish a $50 million investment fund for affordable housing for seniors.

NEF has provided $45 million and National Church Residences contributed $5 million to the fund, which is meant to be used to acquire existing affordable senior housing communities for renovation and preservation. The first investment using the fund was completed on Dec. 31, with $3.68 million deployed to purchase Big Bethel Village in Atlanta.

“The resources needed to create new affordable senior housing continue to shrink…Preserving the affordable senior housing communities that already exist is so important,” National Church Residences President Michelle Norris said in a news release.

The money is expected to be used over the next three years. In addition to Big Bethel Village, acquisition plans include Antioch Tower in Cleveland, Ohio and Clinton Place in Mt. Clemens, Michigan during the first quarter of 2016.

Lancaster Pollard Closes $4.5 Million Refinance for Community in Washington, Arranges $43.6 Million Construction Loan for Ohio CCRC

Lancaster Pollard recently closed on a $4.5 million refinance for Evergreen Estates Retirement & Assisted Living Community in Clarkston, Washington through the FHA Se. 232/2223(f) program. The financial services firm that helps health care senior living and housing providers with financial advice and solutions also arranged for $43.6 million in Series 2015A and Series 2015B Bonds for Methodist ElderCare to construct a new continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in New Albany, Ohio.

The $4.5 million loan will help Evergreen Estates refinance its existing debt and fund its replacement reserve account. The new FHA-insured structure involves a lower interest rate than Evergreen’s former bank loan, a 30-year term and positions the facility for future expansion, according to a news release.

The $43.6 million in bonds were privately placed with two regional banks to fund the construction of Wesley Woods, which will offer detached villa-style cottages. The capital will also allow for the addition of a wellness center at Wesley Ridge, another Methodist Eldercare facility that offers assisted living and independent living. Finally, the debt structure will refinance the provider’s existing Series 2005, 2010 and 2011 tax-exempt bonds.

CBRE Facilitates $20.1 Million Acquisition Financing for Assisted Living Community near Seattle

CBRE National Senior Housing has arranged a $22.1 million loan for owner and developer Capitol Seniors Housing to acquire and renovate Harbour Pointe Retirement and Assisted Living Community, a 107-unit independent and assisted living community in the Seattle suburb of Mukilteo.

Capitol plans to use $1 million of the loan to convert 31 assisted living units into a memory care wing, among other planned improvements. The non-recourse, floating-rate loan includes a five-year term with 36 months of interest-only payments. Capital is provided by a national bank.

Capitol will lease the property to Milestone Retirement Communities, a Vancouver, Washington-based operator of 30 communities in 10 states.

Love Funding Secures $9.1 Million for Refinancing of Affordable Senior Housing in Brooklyn, New York, Closes $10 Million Loan for New Community in West Palm Beach, Florida

Love Funding, a provider of FHA multi-family, affordable and health care financing, has secured a $9.1 million loan for the refinancing of JASA’s Scheuer House of Coney Island, an affordable senior housing property located in Brooklyn, New York. The company also announced the closing of a $10 million loan blending tax credits and FHA financing for the construction and financing of a new seniors-focused apartment community in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The loan for JASA was secured through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) 223(f) program, enabling JASA to preserve rent-subsidized units at the property, fund more than $4.8 million in repairs and reserves, provide additional equity to use for future projects and move to 35-year non-recourse debt at a fixed interest rate.

Schemer House of Coney Island offers 197 age-restricted studio and one-bedroom apartments. Planned improvements and repairs on the building include elevator upgrades, new kitchens and bathroom refurbishments, renovations of common areas and flood prevention measures. The additional equity will allow JASA to look into further opportunities to build more affordable housing and senior communities in the area.

The $10 million loan was arranged for the West Palm Beach Housing Authority fund the construction of Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior Complex, with plans to offer 99 units for people age 62 or older. Construction is part of the larger redevelopment of a 17-acre public housing project formerly known as Dunbar Village, and the new senior living complex will consist of two three-story residential buildings and a separate clubhouse.

The project will be funded through a combination of 4% low-income housing tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, a Florida State Apartment Incentive Loan with an Extremely Low Income bonus, along with the FHA-insured mortgage. The FHA portion was secured through HUD’s 221(d)(4) loan insurance program, which provides non-recourse, fixed-rate financing for a term of up to 40 years for the construction and permanent financing of new apartments or the substantial rehabilitation of existing apartments.

Written by Kourtney Liepelt

The post Senior Housing Finance Activity: Capital One Named Top Lead Arranger appeared first on Senior Housing News.

(Rendering of a new Allegro Senior Living community under construction in Orlando, Fla. — photo courtesy of Allegro Senior Living, LLC)

Construction: Planned

National Church Residences to Break Ground Next Week for $35 Million Ohio Project

National Church Residences, a not-for-profit senior housing provider, plans to break ground May 9 for Inniswood Village, a new senior living community located at 975 South Sunbury Rd. in Westerville, Ohio.

The 13-acre construction site is nestled in a setting adjacent to Inniswood Metro Gardens and next to the Central College Presbyterian Church property.

When complete, the 192-apartment campus will include independent living terrace apartments, senior apartments, assisted living and memory care apartments.

The community will feature a Town Center with a chapel, library, bistro, movie theater, club room and other activity spaces. Residents may also enjoy a variety of wellness programs, social activities and restaurant-style dining.

For the project, National Church Residences has enlisted the services and expertise of Roseville, Minn.-based Senior Housing Partners to develop Inniswood Village.

St. Paul, Minn.-based Pope Architects designed Inniswood Village and Ruscilli Construction, based in Columbus, Ohio, is the general contractor.

With 340 communities in 28 states and Puerto Rico, National Church Residences is among the nation’s largest not-for-profit providers of affordable senior housing.

National Church Residences expects the $35 million Inniswood Village community will open in the fall of 2017.

Construction: In process

Allegro Senior Living Breaks Ground on Orlando Community

St. Louis-based Allegro Senior Living LLC recently hosted an official groundbreaking ceremony for its tenth community located in the Casselberry/Winter Park area of Orlando, Fla.

The luxury rental community sits on a 17.3-acre site at the intersection of 436 and Howell Branch Road.

Project plans call for 158 units within a 175,000-square-foot structure, offering independent living, assisted living and memory care.

The property will boast luxury accommodations such as a full service salon and spa, stadium theater, fitness center, concierge service, housekeeping service and 24-hour staffing with an active social program.

Accommodations also comprise multiple restaurant-style dining venues, including a bistro and patio dining with a gas fire pit providing views of Lake Ann.

Architectural design is being provided by Besselo Design Group, and construction services are provided by Welbro Building Corporation of Maitland, Fla.

Allegro expects first occupancy for the new community in summer 2017.

When fully occupied, Allegro anticipates creating 120 full- and part-time jobs in addition to 225 construction jobs.

Civitas Senior Living Announces Plans for Texas Assisted Living Project

Fort Worth, Texas-based Civitas Senior Living recently broke round on Long Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care, a new assisted living and memory care community in Sunnyvale, Texas.

This development will be the 27th property in the company’s expanding portfolio.

With 50 assisted living units and 25 memory care apartments, Long Creek will also features amenities that include a craft room, wellness/fitness center, walking trail, among other offerings.

Unique to the Long Creek community will be the Passion Program, a signature program developed by Civitas and found only within the company’s communities.

The Program is designed to help all residents celebrate aging and engage in the hobbies and social activities that are of particular interest to them.

The architect for the project is Pi Architects and the construction company is Trepex Construction Inc.

Civitas will be the management company for Long Creek.

Congress Companies Selected for $39 Million New York SNF 

White Plains Healthcare Properties I, LLC and EPIC Healthcare have selected Congress Building Corp. as the construction manager and developer for its 110,000-square-foot rehabilitation and skilled nursing facility in White Plains, N.Y.

Th $39 million facility consists of 160 beds of skilled nursing, including 76 specialized rehabilitation beds, 42 Alzheimer’s secure beds and 42 long-term care beds—each located within specially designed nursing units.

For this project, Congress will lead and coordinate the subcontractor and supplier pricing and procurement process.

During the construction phase, which is slated to begin in early summer 2016, Congress will manage construction activities, cost control, quality control, as well as safety programs and procedures.

Headquartered in Peabody, Mass., Congress Building Corp. has completed over 8,000 beds and 4.5 million square feet of health care and long-term care construction throughout the eastern U.S. over the past 45 years.

Recent projects for the company include a 74-unit, 84,000-square-foot assisted living facility in Easton, Mass.; an 80-bed, 68,000-square-foot assisted living and memory care facility in South Windsor, Conn.; and an 83-bed, 76,000-square-foot assisted living facility in Ipswich, Mass.

Cathedral Square Begins Construction of Vt. Senior Housing Project

Non-profit senior housing developer and operator Cathedral Square this week broke ground on an affordable housing community for seniors in Milton, Vt.

Elm Place is located at 60 Bombardier Road in Milton and will be Vermont’s first multi-family building certified to Passive House standards, with energy-efficient features that will allow the property to use roughly 65% less energy than those built to today’s standard codes, according to Cathedral Square.

Expected to open in March 2017, Elm Place will provide 30 affordable one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors.

Amenities will include covered parking, laundry facilities, on-site storage space, an exercise room, and more.

Support And Services at Home (SASH) will be offered to residents at no cost. SASH is a care coordination program which gives residents access to the care they need to stay healthy while living comfortably and safely at home.

Elm Place development costs were funded by various sources, including Vermont Housing Finance Agency; People’s United Bank’ the Vermont Community Development Program; the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board; the HOME Investment Partnership; The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation; Efficiency Vermont; the TD Charitable Foundation, Commons Energy; Enterprise Community Partners; The Housing Assistance Council; Vermont Gas; as well as the Town of Milton.

Springpoint Senior Living Receives Funding for N.J. Rental Housing

Non-profit provider Springpoint Senior Living received funding from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to move forward with rental housing in Ocean County for older adults who were impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Springpoint is using these funds, along with low-income housing tax credit equity, and funds to be provided by the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program for Sandy recovery, to repurpose a building on its Crestwood Manor continuing care retirement community (CCRC) campus.

As a result of the repositioning, the new affordable rental housing will be called Heritage at Whiting.

The rental community offers private one- and two-bedroom apartments that include amenities such as kitchens with full-size stainless steel appliances, modern bathrooms with walk-in showers and spacious walk-in closets.

Rental rates begin at $451 for a one-bedroom to $930 for a two-bedroom.

Springpoint expects construction to be completed by this fall, and the first residents are expected to move-in by October.

Roger B. Kennedy Construction Breaks Ground on $10 Million Fla. Community

Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Roger B. Kennedy Construction this week broke ground for the Brixton Landing Apartments senior living facility, which is located in the Orlando suburb of Apopka, Fla.

The $10 million construction contract with Wendover Housing Partners LLC of Orlando will produce an 80-unit senior living apartment community.

Orlando-based Slocum Platts Architects designed the project, which is slated for completion in February 2017.

Construction: Completed

Sinai Residences Hosts Grand Opening for $265 Million Fla. CCRC 

This week, the $265 million Sinai Residences of Boca Raton celebrated its grand opening in Boca Raton, Fla.

The community features more than 350 state-of-the-art residences, providing support for all stages of senior life, including 234 independent living apartment homes, and an on-site continuum of care, including 48 assisted living residences, 60 skilled nursing suites and 24 private memory care suites.

The not-for-profit CCRC was developed and is overseen by the Board of Managers of Federation CCRC Development, LLC, an affiliate of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.

Sinai Residences offers a wealth of luxury services and amenities, including hospitality, recreational and social services, cultural and academic pursuits, fitness programs, as well as gourmet dining. The community also offers a kosher dining experience.

The CCRC is located on the north side of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County campus west of Boca Raton.

Specifically, the Sinai Residences fills acres of land that had been vacant on the Federation campus since it first officially opened its doors in 1991.

Over time, the project has brought more than 550 full-time jobs to Palm Beach County, including 325 full-time construction-related jobs, and is soon to reach a total of 225 Sinai Residences employees.

The Sinai Residences development team, led by Greenbrier Development of Dallas, includes Suffolk Construction, Perkins-Eastman Architects, H.J. Sims & Co. investment bankers, among others.

In addition, Des Moines, Iowa-based Life Care Services manages the community.

Caddis Opens New Texas Assisted Living Community

Caddis, a national health care real estate firm headquartered in Dallas, recently opened a 96-bed assisted living and memory care community on the north side of Fort Worth, Texas.

Heartis Eagle Mountain is a 61,125-square-foot community that includes 54 spacious assisted living units (61 beds) and a dedicated 35-bed memory care unit.

Located on a 4.3-acre site at 3141 Dalhart Drive, the community sits about one mile from Eagle Mountain Lake, with easy access to U.S. Highway 287 and Interstate 35W.

Heartis Eagle Mountain is owned by a Caddis affiliate and managed by Eugene, Ore.-based Good Neighbor Care, a company with more than two decades of senior living management experience in Texas and several other states.

In terms of amenities, Heartis Eagle Mountain offers game and activity rooms, a beauty/barber shop, outdoor dining room that serves chef-prepared meals, common areas, daily social and recreational activities, along with licensed nursing services, landscaped grounds, a 24-hour emergency call system, housekeeping and laundry services.

The architect for the project was Austin, Texas-based Katus LLC.

Written by Jason Oliva

The post In the Pipeline: Senior Housing Construction Projects (5/5/16) appeared first on Senior Housing News.

(Rendering of Arcardia Senior Living, located in Bowling Green, Kentucky —Photo courtesy of Arcadia Senior Living)

Construction: Planned

Arcadia Community Planned in Kentucky

A new senior housing community in Bowling Green, Kentucky is being planned by Arcadia Communities. The community will be constructed on a seven acre portion of land and will encompass 80,000 square feet.

DMK Development is working with Arcadia to develop the community, which will include 79 studio, one- and two-bedroom units for independent living, assisted living and memory care.

Amenities include a fitness center, outdoor walking paths, a library, baking kitchen, art studio, small dog park, theater, happy hour and internet lounge, rose-garden terrace, patio seating with fire pit, restaurant-style dining room, a private dining room for special occasions and 24-hour staffing.

Construction is planned to begin in the coming weeks.

Senior Community in Wisconsin Gets Upgrades Under New Ownership

Formerly, a New Perspective Senior Living facility, the community in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, will be purchased by Castle Senior Living Inc. and will undergo remodeling.

The hope is to begin remodeling as soon as possible with plans to open the community to residents in spring 2017, according to Castle.

Once the remodel is finished there will be 26-28 units and the anticipated cost will be $1.6 million, which includes the purchase price of the facility.

Construction: In progress

Ground Broken at New LCB Senior Living Community 

Located in Melrose, Massachusetts, the Residence at Melrose celebrated its groundbreaking. The LCB Senior Living community ill be a 90-apartment independent living, assisted living and memory care residence.

Both independent living and assisted living units will include kitchenettes and private bathrooms. Other amenities include an on-site gourmet restaurant that will allow residents to dine on their own schedules, community living rooms and a library, media room, recreation facilities, outdoor sitting areas, 24-hour security and laundry and cleaning services.

Residents with early stage Alzheimer’s disease and other memory impairments will receive LCB’s Reflections Memory Care services.

The community is expected to open in spring 2017.

N.Y. Affordable Senior Housing Community Underway

This week, ground broke on a new senior living residence in Queens, New York. Corona Senior Residence will be a 68-unit affordable housing apartment building. The Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee (HANAC) will own the building.

All apartments will be income-restricted except a superintendent’s unit, with 21 units reserved for vulnerable seniors.

The building is being designed by think! Architecture and Design and Bruno Frusta Contraction, Inc. is in charge of construction. Construction of the building was financed under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York: a Five-Borough, Ten-Year Plan.

Corona Senior Residence is anticipated to be complete in spring 2018.

StoryPoint Senior Living To Start Four New Projects

Headquartered in Saline, Michigan, StoryPoint Senior Living has announced four new projects in Ohio and Indiana.

One community is already underway. StoryPoint Waterville, located in Waterville, Ohio broke ground in August and once complete will offer 168 apartment homes for independent living, “enhanced” living and memory care.

StoryPoint Chesterton, located in Chesterton, Indiana, will break ground at the end of this month on a 188,000 square-foot independent and enhanced living community that will feature 162 apartment homes.

At the end of November, StoryPoint Fort Wayne, in Fort Wayne, Indiana will break ground and will offer independent living and enhanced living as well.

The last community in the project will break ground in December will be StoryPoint Fairfield, in Fairfield, Ohio and will feature independent living, enhanced living and memory care and will be 221,000 square feet.

All of the communities will be rental communities and will feature various dining options from cafe-style dining to bistro and restaurant-style dining.

Construction Begins on $11 Million Senior Community in New York

As part of a larger $250 million project in Onondaga, New York, Peregrine Senior Living Company recently began construction on an $11 million memory care community.

The 46,000 square-foot community will offer care for 64 residents who have Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

The memory care community is the first to be constructed as part of the larger project in Onondaga. The project may take as many as five years to complete.

Construction: Complete

Ohio Senior Community Completes $7 Million Rehab

Located in Belpre, Ohio, Putnam Howe Village senior living community has completed a $7 million rehabilitation project that took place over the last year.

The community is a 51-unit affordable housing community and the rehabilitation that took place included a new exterior facade, windows and roof, an expanded interior common area and upgrades to handicapped accessible units.

Putnam Howe Village was originally built in 1983 by National Church Residences and was awarded a 9% tax credit from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency in 2014 for the upgrades.

Written by Alana Stramowski

The post In the Pipeline: Senior Housing Construction Projects (10/27/16) appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Lancaster Pollard Helps Two California-Based Senior Living Providers Refinance Communities 

Lancaster Pollard recently helped two California-based clients refinance their senior housing properties using the Fannie Mae Seniors Housing program.

First, Lancaster Pollard assisted Sterling Senior Communities in completing a $19 million refinance of Tanner Springs, a 115-bed assisted living and memory care community in Oregon. The move refinanced an existing $10.5 million HUD loan and included a reimbursement of $8.2 million for previously incurred cap expenditures. Jason Dopoulos led the transaction for Lancaster Pollard, the company said in a press release.

In the second transaction, Lancaster Pollard helped Cornerstone Assisted Living Communities with a $14.5 million refinance with the Fannie Mae Seniors Housing program. The 110-bed assisted living community, located in northern California, successfully refinanced $9.6 million of existing debt and included a reimbursement of $4 million for cap expenditures that were previously incurred, with the remaining loan amount used to pay transaction expenses. Grant Goodman led the transaction for Lancaster Pollard.

Casey Moore and Doug Harper, managing directors of agency finance at Lancaster Pollard, helped both Goodman and Dopoulos with the transactions.

The Fannie Mae Seniors Housing program provides intermediate and long-term variable or fixed-rate non-recourse loans in a timely and cost efficient manner for the acquisition or refinance of stabilized properties.

iBorrow Provides $13.5 Million Loan to Azure Leisure Living

A Los Angeles-based private direct lender for commercial real estate, iBorrow, provided a $13.5 million loan to Azure Leisure Living for La Palma Royale, an assisted living community in Anaheim, California.

The 199-bed, 73,641-square-foot building was constructed in 1974, and has been remodeled two times since then.

Azure Leisure Living, the borrower, intends to utilize the funds, along with an additional $8 million in equity, to buy the community. Azure began co-managing the community earlier in 2016 and has boosted the occupancy rate up to the national average, iBorrow noted.

The fact that Azure Leisure Living invested $8 million of new equity in connection with the acquisition, with little debt in any of their other properties, helped iBorrow make the decision to loan the $13.5 million, iBorrow CEO Brian Good said in a press release.

“Also, the facility qualifies for the federally funded Assisted Living Waiver program—which provides additional income to the operator,” Good added. “Most lenders were afraid to underwrite the property due to its special use, but we created a loan structure that leaves us confident that the property will perform to its full potential and that investors are well protected.”

RED Continues Strong Relationship with National Church Residences with a MAP and Lean Closing for Ohio Independent and Assisted Living Facility

The mortgage banking arm of RED Capital Group, LLC, RED Mortgage Capital, recently coordinated a MAP and Lean closing with National Church Residences for a refinance and renovation of Portage Trail Village, a property in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Portage Trail is a 13-story, 183-unit HUD Section 202 apartment community with occupancy limited to heads of household who are 62 years and older or handicapped. The property, which National Church Residences purchased in 1991, is 100% Section 8 subsidized.

As part of the Assisted Living Conversion Program (ALCP) through HUD, National Church Residences renovated Portage Trail in 2009 to convert the first six floors of the building to assisted living units. The remaining floors at Portage Trail are still independent living units.

The $3.1 million FHA MAP financing, together with $1.06 million in FHA Lean financing, is set to cover the rehabilitation of Portage Trail, according to RED Capital. The process required the building to be divided into two distinct condominium facilities. The independent living units were funded under the MAP program, and the rehab for the assisted living units was funded via the Lean program.

Additionally, National Church Residences was able to leverage more equity from Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), as well as a $1 million subordinate loan from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.

Capital Funding Group Announces $25 Million in Loan Closings

Capital Funding Group (CFG) recently announced several loan closings, including a $2.5 million working capital line of credit for La Brea Rehabilitation Center; a $17.6 million HUD 232 loan to finance the new construction of an assisted living community in Cary, North Carolina; and a $5 million cash flow loan for a Texas skilled nursing facility operator. Together, these loan closings total about $25 million.

Once finished, the new assisted living community in Cary, North Carolina will have 40 assisted living units and 40 memory care units. The community is scheduled to open in May 2017. The loan, which closed on Sept. 29, was originated by CFG Director of Real Estate Finance Gary Sever. Capital Funding, LLC acted as only lender.

CFG Director Chip Woelper, meanwhile, originated the $2.5 million working capital line of credit for The Rehabilitation Center on La Brea in Los Angeles, California. The loan closed in October.

Jeffrey Stein, an executive managing director at CFG, originated the $5 million cash flow loan for the Texas skilled nursing facility operator. The loan also closed in October.

Lancaster Pollard Closes Deals Using New HUD Debt Eligibility Guidance

Lancaster Pollard recently announced the successful closings of 10 different transactions for three different clients utilizing the updated HUD debt eligibility guidance.

Six of the transactions were for a portfolio of properties owned and operated by The Brook Retirement Communities, a senior housing provider with communities in central and northern Michigan. Lancaster Pollard helped Brook Retirement Communities recapitalize six of its communities with the FHA Sec. 232/223(f) program for a total loan amount of $26.9 million.

Using the new debt eligibility guidance, Lancaster Pollard obtained the waiver required to start the process right away, enabling the borrower to benefit from permanent financing at a low interest rate. Brandon Healy led the transactions for Lancaster Pollard, the company said.

Lancaster Pollard also helped Agemark Corporation bypass the two-year seasoning period and refinance two of its memory care communities in Nebraska with the FHA Sec. 232/223(f) program. The total loan amount was $11.1 million, according to Lancaster Pollard. Grant Goodman led these transactions for Lancaster Pollard.

The last two transactions were for a senior housing operator in the Midwest that was interested in buying out its partners and refinancing the communities’ existing debt.

“We utilized our internal bridge loan platform to structure the partner buyout and refinance of existing facility debt,” said Healy, who again led the transactions for Lancaster Pollard. “We then submitted the FHA 232/223(f) applications as soon as the new debt eligibility guidance was released.”

As part of the new HUD guidance, debt eligibility and seasoning definitions may be broadened to enable more immediate refinancing of project-related debt in the operator’s name. Additionally, bridge financing may be utilized for partner buy-outs and identity of interest (IOI) purchases. Both of these options are subject to the review of HUD. Eligible indebtedness and loan-to-value (LTV) requirements vary, depending on the specific circumstances surrounding a transaction.

CBRE Arranges $77.3 Million Sale and $50.5 Million Financing of Senior Housing Communities in Georgia 

CBRE Capital Markets’ National Senior Housing group recently arranged the sale of two senior housing communities in Georgia to an affiliate of Arcapita Investment Management US for $77.25 million, or $327,330 per unit.

The communities included in the transaction are Arbor Terrace of East Cobb in Marietta, Georgia, which has 90 units; and Arbor Terrace Peachtree City in Peachtree City, Georgia, which has 146 units.

“The buyer will continue to use the current operator, The Arbor Company, through the acquisition of these communities. Plans to further expand this relationship are ongoing,“  CBRE National Senior Housing Executive Vice President Lisa Widmier said.

Widmier and Matthew Whitlock of CBRE Capital Markets’ National Senior Housing team represented the seller, affiliates of Capitol Seniors Housing.

Meanwhile, Aron Will of CBRE Capital Markets’ National Senior Housing Team originated $50.5 million in acquisition financing on the borrower’s behalf. CBRE, via its Freddie Mac Seller Servicer direct lending program, secured a fixed-rate, seven-year loan with 36 months interest only.

Together, Arbor Terrace of East Cobb and Arbor Terrace Peachtree City have 236 independent living, assisted living, personal care and memory care units.

Walker & Dunlop Closes $25 Million Fannie Mae Loan for Seniors Community in Washington 

Walker & Dunlop Inc. recently arranged a $25 million loan for Wheatland Village, a Class A independent living, assisted living and memory care community operated by Portland, Oregon-based Generations Senior Living in Walla Walla, Washington. In total, the community has 134 independent living units, 62 assisted living units and 38 memory care units.

Generations Senior Living developed Wheatland Village in 2004 via a partnership with a not-for-profit hospital.

William Jackson and Jeffrey Ringwald of Walker & Dunlop structured the 15-year, fixed-rate Fannie Mae loan featuring a 30-year amortization schedule. The deal consolidates two existing loans and has a 60% loan-to-value ratio.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson

The post Senior Housing Finance Activity: Lancaster Pollard, RED Capital appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Construction: Planned

National Church Residences Plans Community in Ohio

Senior living nonprofit National Church Residences has plans to open a rental senior living community in Columbus, Ohio.

The planned mid-rise community will have 62 one-and two-bedroom units. Planned amenities include a fitness center, a wellness suite and a community room with kitchen and social space.

The community was made possible in part by low-income housing tax credits from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA). Construction is expected next year in the summer, with an expected opening in 2022. Berardi + Partners will develop the community’s architectural plan and design the building.

Vitality Living Announces Development Partnership in Georgia

Vitality Living and Hillpointe have announced a new partnership to develop a senior living community in Madison, Georgia.

The community, Vitality Living Madison, is set to have 332 units and amenities that include a recreation and wellness center with fitness and yoga space, workout equipment, bocce and shuffleboard courts and a heated swimming pool. The community will open in phases, with independent and active options coming first and assisted living and memory care planned for the second phase.

The community is currently taking reservations and is slated to open later this year.

Construction: In progress

Greenbrier to Manage Community Under Construction in Texas

Greenbrier Senior Living is set to manage a three-story, 88-unit community under construction in Austin, Texas.

The community, Longleaf Bee Cave, is set to open next year in the Austin suburb of Bee Cave. Planned amenities include neighborhood living rooms and lounge areas, multiple dining venues, a surround sound theater, arts and crafts studio, library, salon, and fitness and rehab center. The community will also come with infectious control design and engineering, including HEPA filtration, disinfectant UV lighting and anti-microbial surfaces.

The community is being developed by Braemar Partners. Studio Architects is the project’s architect, while its interior design is being handled by the Faulkner Design Group. Ridgemont Construction is working as the general contractor for the project.

Integral Community Coming Together in Illinois

ISL Ventures is collaborating with Integral Senior Living (ISL) and a handful of other stakeholders on a new community in Mount Prospect, Illinois.

The community, Mount Prospect Senior Living, is set to have 100 studio, one- and two-bedroom suites for residents. Amenities include a bistro, salon and spa, courtyards, outdoor spaces with walking paths and space for gardening, a dog park, gym and theater.

The community is currently under construction, and is projected to open early in 2021. Other project partners include Charles Hall Construction, Leading Light Development and Construction Consulting and Pi Architects.

Site Work Begins for Independent Living Complex in New York

Preliminary site work is now underway for the construction of a new independent living complex from Gurwin Healthcare System in Commack, New York.

The 10-acre, 129-apartment complex, Fountaingate Gardens, will house dining venues, a fitness center spaces for social gathering and other amenities. An official groundbreaking is planned for this fall.

The complex is an extension of Gurwin Healthcare System and is meant to add independent living to the provider’s current offerings, including assisted living, skilled nursing and short-term rehab.

Gurwin Healthcare System Gurwin Healthcare System

Lenbrook Expansion On Track for 2021 Opening

Lenbrook, a life plan community in Atlanta, is making good headway on its $116 million Kingsboro at Lenbrook expansion.

The expansion is now more than 60% pre-sold. When finished, it will bring Lenbrook’s total number of residences to 478.

Lenbrook Lenbrook

Construction: Complete

Avenida Active Adult Community Opens in Illinois

The McShane Construction Company has announced the end of construction for Avenida Naperville, an active adult community from Avenida Partners in Naperville, Illinois.

The community, designed by Meeks + Partners, will have a total of 146 apartment homes spread across six two- and three-story wood-frame buildings. The community’s amenities include a clubhouse with a bistro, fitness and yoga studios, a theater, library, private dining, arts studio, swimming pool and spa, outdoor dining areas, and lawns for yoga and games.

Avenida Partners Avenida Partners

New Perspective Opens Wisconsin Community

Senior living provider New Perspective on Monday announced the opening of New Perspective Franklin, a multi-story senior living community in Franklin, Wisconsin.

The community has 149 units of independent and assisted living apartments along with a secure memory care neighborhood. Amenities include a two-story lobby and reception area with fireplaces and water features, a fitness center with a warm-water pool, multiple dining venues, a beauty salon and spa, movie theater and dance a hall. The community also is within walking distance to the park where independent baseball team the Milwaukee Milkmen play.

New Perspective New Perspective

Oppidan, Ebenezer Announce Newly Opened Community in Minnesota

Developer Oppidan Investment Company and operator Ebenezer Management Services have announced the opening of The Pillars of Prospect Park, a new senior living community in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The community spans 10-story, with 283 units for residents. On the community’s ground floor is a 1,900 square feet for a to-be-determined retail tenant, and 6,230 square feet of space for a daycare for 105 kids.

Other amenities include a club room, fitness center with golf simulator, roof deck, bistro, salon and spa and residences with in-unit washers and dryers, stainless steel appliances, granite counters, walk-in closets and windows and balconies with views of the Minneapolis skyline.

National Church Residences Completes Renovations in Pittsburgh

National Church Residences has renovated Sharpsburg Towers, an affordable apartment community for older adults in Pittsburgh.

The $5.2 million project included upgrades to all of the community’s 103 one-bedroom apartments, such as updated kitchen cabinets, countertops and appliances, new bathroom vanities and new heating and cooling systems. The community also got a new front lobby, computer and multi-purpose room, and upgrades to its community room and kitchen.

Other noteworthy projects:

Planned

— Trilogy Health Services has plans to open a senior housing community in Noblesville, Indiana.

— A nonprofit has plans to open a new independent senior living community in Collierville, Tennessee.

In progress

— Work is continuing for an affordable rental community in Scituate, Massachusetts.

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Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program includes Welltower, Ventas, Healthpeak

Welltower (NYSE: WELL), Ventas (NYSE: VTR) and Healthpeak Properties (NYSE: PEAK) are among the real estate investment trusts receiving funding as part of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF), The Real Deal reported. The program, established as part of the CARES Act, allows the Fed to buy as much as $750 billion in corporate debt issued by highly rated companies including real estate firms.

REITs account for 3.24% of the SMCCF index, weighted by sector. Welltower accounts for 0.15% of the Fed’s total buy, placing the Toledo, Ohio-based health care REIT third among real estate companies on the list. Chicago-based Ventas accounts for 0.12% of the index and Irvine, California-based Healthpeak accounts for 0.1% of the total index.

The facility began purchasing bonds in mid-June.

Ziegler completes $278M in bond financing

Ziegler completed two bond financing packages totaling $277.25 million — the Chicago investment bank’s first transactions since the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country.

In the first deal, Ziegler placed $77.85 million in Series 2020A&B fixed rate bonds for Rose Villa, a life plan community in Portland, Oregon undergoing a six-year, multi-phase campus reinvestment project. Proceeds will support the third and final phase of the campus redevelopment.

The second deal, $199.4 million in Series 2020A-D fixed-rate bonds for Acts Retirement-Life Communities, will support a number of projects across its 26 life plan communities, including the addition of independent living units, repositioning of healthcare units, common area renovations and general infrastructure improvements.

Blueprint consults on sale of Oregon assisted living facility

Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors Senior Director Amy Sitzman and Senior Associate Giancarlo Riso consulted in the sale of an 88-unit assisted living and memory care facility in West Linn, Oregon. The buyer is Los Angeles-based boutique real estate firm Dylan Investments and the community is operated by Cadence Living. 

Carnegie Capital arranges $17M refinancing for Oregon community

Carnegie Capital Managing Partner JD Stettin arranged a $16.6 million refinancing package through Truist for a 96 unit senior housing community in Redmond, Oregon offering independent living, assisted living and memory care services. The borrower, a regional developer-operator, used the proceeds to draw cash out, and the facility features a built-in earn out feature to release more funds as the property maintains stabilization.

National Church Residences acquires Florida independent living villas

National Church Residences acquired 92 villas adjacent to the Water’s Edge of Bradenton in Bradenton, Florida, expanding the organization’s ownership and operations at the community. The provider has owned and operated 108 independent living and assisted living senior apartments at this campus since a merger in 2014. An expansion two years later added 60 new assisted living and 20 secure memory care apartments. The villas are 55-plus, independent living, free-standing condos.

K4Connect closes $21M Series B funding round

Senior living tech firm K4Connect closed a Series B funding round with a raise of $21 million, highlighted by a financing raise of $7.7 million led by Forte Ventures. The company’s outside venture funding to date stands at $31 million.

As part of the investment, Forte Ventures’ Partner Louis Rajczi will join the K4Connect board of directors.

In other K4Connect news, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based firm partnered with Pyron, a artificial intelligence company focused on augmented intelligence for enterprise solutions in the senior living industry in order to help improve the lives of older adults by empowering and augmenting caregivers.

K4Connect’s Staff Assistant, powered by Pryon Answers, enables senior living operators to provide each caregiver with an AI assistant that augments their knowledge, helps them make better decisions, and frees up time for them to spend with residents.

The firm also announced a collaboration with Bandwidth, a software company focused on enterprise communications solutions, to deliver a new critical Covid-19 communications tool to senior living communities, called K4Community Hotline. The platform is a recorded phone message feature that keeps residents, their families, and community staff constantly updated with the latest community information.

Integral Senior Living to manage Oklahoma community

Integral Senior Living was chosen to provide management services for Sooner Station, a 188-unit first-class senior living community currently under construction in Norman, Okla. The community, which sits on an eight-acre site purchased from the OU Foundation, will offer 100 independent living residences, 64 assisted living apartments and 24 memory care suites and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2021.

Lancaster Pollard completes 2 transactions

Lancaster Pollard Mortgage Company completed the following transactions:

• A $20.8 million refinancing package for a skilled nursing and memory care facility in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas. the existing debt and reimbursed the ownership group in excess of $1 million for recent capital improvements at the community. Kyle Hemminger led the transaction.
• Brett Murphy advised Gardant Management in a $16.9 million refinancing package using the FHA Sec. 232/223(f) program for Heritage Woods of Batavia, a 148-unit affordable assisted living community located in Batavia, Illinois. Proceeds retired a short-term bridge loan and put in place non-recourse, permanent debt at a low, fixed interest rate.

ZOM Living, Watermark acquire sites for 2 Florida communities

ZOM Living and Watermark Retirement Communities closed on two sites in south Florida that will deliver a combined 350 luxury rental apartments for seniors in Coral Gables and West Palm Beach. Construction of both projects is expected to begin later this summer.

The acquisitions pave the way for ZOM Senior Living’s second and third luxury rental senior living communities in Florida, following a 424-unit development already underway in Wellington. The company has 774 senior housing units under development.

Propel Insurance acquires senior care insurance consulting firm

Insurance agency Propel Insurance the acquisition of HealthCare Services (HCS), a boutique risk management and insurance consulting firm based in Knoxville, Tennessee specializing in serving senior care organizations. The combined agency will generate in excess of $120 million of annual revenue in 2020 and will have seven offices across the U.S.

The acquisition expands Propel’s existing senior living practice, and the two firms will consolidate their expertise as they help clients manage risk across the country.

SLIB completes sale of Oregon memory care facility

Senior Living Investment Brokerage’s Jason Punzel, Brad Goodsell and Vince Viverito were the sole brokers in the sale of a 59-unit/95-bed memory care facility in Springfield, Oregon. The seller is a local owner-operator that will stay on as a consultant post-closing. This is the seller’s only senior living community. The buyer is a regional operator with multiple communities along the West Coast.

Fitch rates McLean’s 2020 revenue bonds stable

Fitch Ratings assigned a ‘BB+’ rating to the $65 million series 2020A, series 2020B-1, and series 2020B-2 revenue bonds issued by State of Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority on behalf of McLean Affiliates, Inc.

Proceeds are earmarked to fund most of the costs related to McLean’s upcoming independent living unit expansion project, to pay certain capitalized interest costs, to fund a debt service reserve fund, and to pay costs of issuance. The bonds are scheduled to sell via negotiated sale the week of July 20. Ratings outlook is stable.

Rockport Mortgage closes $36M financing for Massachusetts senior apartments

Rockport Mortgage Corporation completed a $36.4 million FHA Section 223(f) refinancing loan for Borden Place Apartments, 261 units of age-restricted housing, located in downtown Fall River, Massachusetts. The development consists of two buildings, Borden Place East (145 units) and Borden Place West (116 units), situated within a two-minute walk of one another.

Proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt, fund replacement reserves and continue ongoing maintenance and minor improvements to keep the properties well maintained. Additionally owner Peabody Properties and HUD agreed to terminate an existing Section 8 contract covering all 261 of the units and enter into a new agreement, keeping Borden Place units affordable through 2055.

SilverPoint Senior Living awarded management of Texas community

SilverPoint Senior Living was awarded management of Heritage Lakes of Pflugerville, a senior living community under construction in Pflugerville, Texas, in partnership with Heritage Lakes Development, a multi-discipline real estate development company.

The new community will feature 28 assisted living and 20 memory care residences adjacent to an existing complement of 38 independent living villas, and is scheduled for a fall 2020 opening.

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Movers & Shakers is brought to you by the Senior Housing News Job Board. Browse and apply to management and executive senior living jobs and positions from leading professional firms serving the industry. Employers can post single jobs, purchase job packages or our premium subscription that includes unlimited job posts and editorial coverage for one year. Visit SHN Jobs today.

Grace Management Names SVP of Human Resources

Grace Management has named Suzanne Hansmann as its new senior vice president of human resources.

In her new role, Hansmann will lead all HR functions for the senior living provider. Hansmann previously held HR leadership roles for companies in settings including medical device, dental manufacturing and retail services. She has about 25 years of HR experience overall.

WesleyLife Names New CFO

Craig Flanagan is set to be the next CFO of WesleyLife.

Flanagan, who is scheduled to begin his new role on Aug. 31, will help lead the organization’s growth and development strategy. Specifically, he will oversee financial strategy, planning and analysis, budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting, and accounting operations as the organization shifts its focus to new and existing development in Iowa and western Illinois.

Flanagan comes to WesleyLife from Mosaic, a healthcare organization offering Medicaid-funded and private-pay services.

National Church Residences Names Regional VP

National Church Residences has promoted Sabrina Ridings to the role of regional vice president in the organization’s affordable housing division.

The new role will task Ridings with overseeing properties in California, Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Ridings first joined the organization in 2011, and in the time since has worked as a property manager, senior property manager and regional portfolio leader.

SRI Announces New SVP of Operations, VP of Marketing

SRI Management has announced three new additions to its corporate team, including a senior vice president of operations and a vice president of marketing.

As senior vice president of operations, Daniel Almendares will apply nearly a decade of past industry experience to his new role. Almendares has worked in a variety of capacities during that time, from administrative trainee to VP of operations.

SRI’s new vice president of marketing and communications, Dave Cone, is tasked with overseeing all of the provider’s senior housing communications, branding, messaging and marketing. Cone has 18 years of experience in communications, technology, data strategy and team management.

Additionally, Elizabeth Lehman has joined SRI’s marketing team in the newly created position of social media and visual content specialist. In that capacity, she will run SRI’s corporate social media accounts, as well as help guide the content of and engagement with the provider’s communities.

SRI also promoted Todd Filippone to the role of executive vice president.

Presbyterian SeniorCare Network Names CFO

Presbyterian SeniorCare Network has hired Todd Boslau as the organization’s new chief financial officer.

As CFO, Boslau is tasked with managing the organization’s finances. He also will serve as an officer of the organization.

Over the past 25 years, Boslau has worked for accounting companies that are now part of advisory, tax and assurance firm Baker Tilly. And, he served as the partner-in-charge of Presbyterian SeniorCare’s audits and most of its affiliate entities’ audits for many years prior, the company said.

Welltower Bolsters Board of Directors

Real estate investment trust Welltower (NYSE: WELL) has named Diana Reid to its board of directors.

Reid comes to Welltower’s board after 12 years at PNC Financial Services. She most recently worked as an executive vice president of The PNC Financial Services Group, and as an executive of the bank’s commercial real estate business.

Cadence Announces VP of Operations for Mountain, West Regions

Cadence Living has hired Mindy Whitworth as its vice president of operations for its mountain region, and Julie Bagg as its vice president of operations for its west region.

Whitworth is tasked with overseeing Candence’s portfolio in Colorado and Utah. She has more than 25 years of experience in senior living operations, sales and marketing, most recently working as a regional vice president of operations for Milestone Communities.

Bagg, meanwhile, will oversee operations for Cadence’s portfolio on the West Coast. Before joining Cadence, Bagg spent more than 11 years of in senior living operations, sales and marketing. She most recently held regional operations and executive director roles in California with Westmont Living and Atria Senior Living.

Retirement Unlimited Appoints Regional Director of Clinical Services

Retirement Unlimited recently promoted Emily Erickson to the role of regional director of clinical services.

In her new role, Erickson will travel to all of the Virginia-based company’s communities to provide clinical oversight and direction to ensure regulatory compliance and meet residents’ needs.

Erickson has worked for Retirement Unlimited since 2016, previously as the Director of Wellness for the company’s Bay Lake Community in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Cypress Living Names VP of Sales and Marketing

Cypress Living has appointed Mike Moss as its vice president of sales and marketing.

Moss will oversee and help develop sales and marketing functions at Cypress Living and its affiliates: Cypress Cove, a continuing care retirement community (CCRC); and Cypress at Home, the organization’s home-based services divison. He previously worked as system director for physician relations and business development at Lee Health.

Integral Names Leaders in Tennessee, Pennsylvania

Integral Senior Living (ISL) has announced personnel moves at two of its senior living communities.

At its Heartis Yardley community in Yardley, Pennsylvania, ISL named Lisa Pflaumer as executive director and Patrice Martin as director of sales and marketing. The community is scheduled to open in the late fall of this year.

At South High Senior Living in Knoxville, Tennessee, ISL announced a new leadership team that includes Executive Director Helen Porter; Vibrant Life Director Maddison Boling; Generations Program Director Monica Maples; Resident Care Director Brenda Wyrick; Culinary Services Director Kevin Fields; Business Office Director Gennah Kennedy; and Building Services Director Tom Overton.

Atlas Communities in Georgia, Alabama Announce New Leadership

Two Atlas communities have new executive directors.

Ryan Mussato is now the executive director of Angels for the Elderly, an Atlas Senior Living memory care community in Montgomery, Alabama. Mussato has more than 14 years of senior living industry experience.

Additionally, Legacy Ridge at Neese Road, an Atlas Senior Living personal care home and memory care community, has named Keith Martin as its executive director, Brenton Steiger as its sales director and Racquel Williams to the role of health and wellness Director.

Ryan Companies Promotes Jordan to Regional President

Ryan Companies has promoted Bret Jordan to the role of regional president for its Northwest region. Jordan joined the company in 2017 and quickly became a key leader in promoting organizational growth and project success. Jordan began his time at Ryan Companies in 2017, when he came aboard as senior vice president and market leader for the company’s Northwest region.

United Church Homes Names Clinical Services Director

Lorelei Heineman has joined United Church Homes as its clinical services director for skilled nursing.

In that role, Heineman will lead clinical efforts for the organization’s senior housing and care communities. She will also assist with clinical processes, including basic tasks such as blood pressure checks for independent living residents, at certain United Church Homes communities.

Earlier this year, the organization hired Terry Spitznagel, senior vice president and chief growth officer; and Dan Fagan, director of population health.

Atlanta Life Plan Community Announces New CFO

Lenbrook, a life plan community in Atlanta, has chosen Leslie Dove as its new CFO and vice president of finance.

Dove has more than 30 years of experience in management, accounting and finance. She most recently worked as the CFO of Capital City Country Club.

Singh Names Executive Director, Culinary Services Manager

Singh Senior Living has named Tammy Mullins as the new executive director of a community in North Carolina and Robert McKeon as the new culinary services manager at a community in Virginia.

As executive director of Waltonwood Cotswold in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mullins will oversee the community’s daily operations and help support each department. She has more than 20 years of senior living experience.

Meanwhile, as culinary services manager at Waltonwood Ashburn in Asburn, Virginia, McKeon will help prepare healthy, flavorful dishes. He has 30 years of culinary experience, and spent the past 12 years in the in health care culinary space.

Watermark Hires Executive Chef for NYC Community

Chef Kfir Kertes has joined Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, a new $330 million senior living community planned to open this year in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

As executive chef, Kertes will oversee culinary operations, create daily and seasonal menus and collaborate with the community’s nutritionists and dietitians. He will also make create custom menus for special events, such as the community’s official opening. He also will manage hiring and training for the community’s culinary personnel.

Before joining Watermark Retirement Communities, Kertes worked as as executive chef for Rockstar Hotels, Club Quarters, and Z NYC Hotel.

Westminster Communities of Florida Rehires VP of Sales and Marketing

Westminster Communities of Florida has named Nicole DeWoolfson Muller as its new vice president of sales and marketing.

In that role, DeWoolfson Muller will lead the organization’s sales and marketing efforts for the organization, which operates 22 communities throughout Florida. Muller previously worked in the same role at Westminster between 2014 and 2018.

Anthem Names EDs in Illinois, Colorado

Anthem has named new leaders for two communities in Glenview, Illinois; and Littleton, Colorado.

Angie Erickson is now executive director of memory care community Willowbrook Place in Littleton. Erickson previously worked as sales manager and general manager of The Carillon at Belleview Station in Denver.

Anthem also appointed Caitlin Terrell as executive director of Emerald Place, an Anthem community in Glenview, Illinois. Terrell previously worked as executive director of the Jacob Healthcare Center in San Diego, California.

Springpoint Names Assistant ED, Administrator for New Jersey CCRC

Roberto Muniz is the new assistant executive director and administrator of Stonebridge at Montgomery, a CCRC affiliated with Springpoint Senior Living in Skillman, New Jersey.

In his new role, Muniz will oversee the community’s day-to-day functions and assist with planning and development. He previously worked as an assistant executive director overseeing a health care community with a 137-bed skilled nursing unit.

Wisconsin Life Plan Community Hires Admissions Coordinator

Joseph Tomasino is now the admissions coordinator at the health and rehab center of Eastcastle Place, a life plan community in Milwaukee.

Tomasino has worked in the senior care industry since 2001. He began working in admissions in 2012.

PointClickCare Announces New Board Member

PointClickCare has announced the appointment of Betsy Atkins to its board of directors.

Atkins is the current CEO of Baja Corporation, a venture capital firm focused on software, technology, energy, and healthcare.

The post Movers & Shakers: Grace Management Names SVP of Human Resources; WesleyLife’s New CFO appeared first on Senior Housing News.

A new plan from the U.S. Dept. of Human Health and Services (HHS) to include private-pay assisted living providers in the allocation of Covid-19 antigen tests is a significant step in the right direction, according to some leaders in the senior living industry — even while there are still many unknowns about the effort.

HHS announced this week it plans to send rapid coronavirus test kits to assisted living communities across the country. If all goes according to plan, the government will begin sending the testing kits to states later this month, according to HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir. HHS plans to send its first shipments to areas hit by natural disasters, such as hurricane-damaged parts of Louisiana and western states affected by recent wildfires.

The federal government previously announced in late August it had ordered 150 million BinaxNOW Ag Card tests from Abbott Laboratories in a $750 million deal. The $5 test is administered using nasal swab, and is purportedly easier to administer than some previous tests. The test itself is about the size of a credit card, and shows results in about 15 minutes without needing any special equipment or training.

The new BinaxNOW test is one of several rapid coronavirus antigen tests released in recent weeks and months. But many others need a special machine to read results, and those machines require more training to use.

Abbott Labs Abbott Labs

Potential ‘game-changer’

The announcement to distribute rapid coronavirus tests to assisted living providers is significant, given that private-pay assisted living providers haven’t received as much support as nursing homes have amid the coronavirus pandemic. And for Juniper Communities Founder and CEO Lynne Katzmann, it’s a sign that the federal government is now taking seriously the important role that senior living communities play in the fight against Covid-19.

“What this says to me is that the government now understands that Covid-19 has affected senior living and assisted living providers, even though we are a largely private-pay business,” Katzmann told Senior Housing News. “By testing and providing funding to assisted living, you keep people healthy, and therefore out of hospitals, and therefore lower the cost for the government as a whole.”

Major senior housing and care industry associations also applauded the announcement. The news comes as a significant boon for the senior living industry, which has had to grapple with long wait times on results on other Covid-19 tests, according to David Schless, president of the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA).

“Screening for symptoms and testing that returns results in five to seven days offers little help in the face of this pandemic,” Schless told SHN. “HHS’ distribution of rapid testing kits that can deliver results in 15 minutes, without the need to be sent to a lab, will be a game-changer in the fight against Covid-19 entering our communities.”

And while there are still many unknowns regarding how HHS will distribute the tests, gaining access to rapid and accurate testing is “absolutely essential” for senior living communities, according to Argentum President and CEO James Balda.

“As we anticipate that antigen tests will increasingly become more widely available, a methodology for accessing, administering, and seeking reimbursement for testing will need to become more clear,” Balda told SHN. “We’ll continue having conversations with HHS to provide further education on what may be required for successful distribution among assisted living communities.”

LeadingAge, the association of non-profit senior service providers, also views the announcement as a welcome development. But, the organization said there are many details left to clarify, and sees antigen testing as just one of the crucial tools needed in the fight against Covid-19.

“We do not have many details as to how many of the tests will be directed to senior living communities, what criteria will be used to allocate the tests to providers, nor do we know the mechanism by which the tests will be delivered,” LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan told SHN. “We are in wait-and-see mode, and are eager to learn more.”

Added layer of safety

The new BinaxNOW tests are far less expensive and show results much faster than some previous Covid-19 tests, and a recent clinical study showed the tests carry a sensitivity of 97.1% and specificity of 98.5%. But senior living providers including Bloomfield, New Jersey-based Juniper and Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit National Church Residences don’t plan to use the antigen tests as their only line of defense against the coronavirus.

“Depending on the reliability of the test, I think it could be beneficial,” National Church Residences Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Weigand told SHN. “But the jury is still out on that.”

Regarding implementing the tests, Weigand said the organization is still determining the best course of action. But he envisions a day when antigen tests can be used to quickly screen community visitors for Covid-19 or spot asymptomatic carriers of the disease.

“We’re going to have third, and fourth and fifth generations of these tests, and they’ll become cheaper, more plentiful, and hopefully, more accurate,” he said.

In Juniper’s case, the test will serve as an added layer of safety along with the more traditional Covid-19 testing. The company is working with Oakland, California-based Dascena on new and innovative ways to test for the disease, such as transitioning from a PCR nasal swab test to a cheek swab test, and processing samples using gene-editing technology CRISPR.

Juniper is also working with Dascena to develop algorithms that will determine who should get an antigen test, and under what circumstances the provider should use another kind of viral test.

“We’re going to layer antigen testing on it, but while utilizing data and analytics to determine the best way to administer that,” Katzmann said. “The combination of the two should allow us to use more antigen testing, which is a lot cheaper and quicker, but still maintain a sense of security regarding using a more accurate test when it’s appropriate to do so.”

Regarding distribution of the tests, Katzmann expects the government will prioritize providers in Covid-19 hotspots just as it did with similar aid for skilled nursing providers. It’s also not clear whether the federal government plans to send more rounds of testing kits in the future after the initial supply runs out.

“We don’t have enough supply for the demand, so I would not expect that this is going to solve all the problems right away,” Katzmann said. “But it’s heading in the right direction.”

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Movers & Shakers is brought to you by the Senior Housing News Job Board. Browse and apply to management and executive senior living jobs and positions from leading professional firms serving the industry. Employers can post single jobs, purchase job packages or our premium subscription that includes unlimited job posts and editorial coverage for one year. Visit SHN Jobs today.

Grandbridge Names Seniors Housing Investment Sales Team

Grandbridge Real Estate Capital has announced a senior housing investment sales team to expand and complement its seniors housing and healthcare finance group.

Former Cushman & Wakefield employees Allen McMurtry, David Kliewer and Jay Jordan are leading the new team, which is based out of Tampa, Florida. Collectively, the team was part of the sale of 190 properties in 35 states, with notable examples including the more than $100 million sale of The Clare in Chicago and a newly-constructed independent living community sold at certificate of occupancy in June.

The new additions will also work alongside Truist Bank’s on- and off-balance sheet capital partners. Grandbridge Real Estate Capital is a subsidiary of Truist, which was formerly known as BB&T.

Lifespace Communities Appoints COO

Eddie Fenoglio is set to assume the role of COO with Lifespace Communities on Oct. 12.

He has more than 25 years of operations leadership experience in public and privately held senior living organizations. During his time with other senior living companies, Fenoglio oversaw and led operational strategy, turnarounds and large-scale acquisitions in states across the U.S.

Lifespace operates 15 continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in eight states.

Solvere Promotes Dancy to Chief Wellness Officer

Solvere Living — the senior living management arm of Solutions Advisors Group — has promoted Lorie Dancy to the role of chief wellness and compliance officer.

In her new role, Dancy will oversee Solvere Living’s wellness and clinical programs, quality assurance program, regulatory and licensing, and the company’s compliance policies.

Dancy, who joined Solvere almost six years ago, previously oversaw the clinical operations and a dementia care trainer for multiple Brookdale Senior Living communities. She also worked at Atria Senior Living, where she had a hand in developing its national quality assurance program. Overall, Dancy has more than 30 years of nursing experience and more than two decades of senior living experience.

Covenant Living Names CFO and SVP of Community Operations

Faith-based senior living nonprofit Covenant Living Communities and Services has named Jeannie Justie as CFO and Amy LaCroix as senior vice president of community operations.

In her new role, Justie will collaborate with Covenant’s senior leadership on organizational and financial strategy, financial management, planning, analysis and operations. She arrives at the organization with more than 20 years of experience in health care finance. She most recently worked for a Chicago-area health system with 19 hospitals in its portfolio.

As a senior vice president of community operations, LaCroix will work with the organization’s leaders in operations, human resources, sales, marketing and communications, health services strategy, project development, information technology and financial services. She joins Covenant with about 20 years of senior living experience, most recently as a regional operations director with a senior living organization that has seven communities in six states.

National Church Residences Creates New Employee Engagement Office

National Church Residences has chosen Danielle Willis to lead its new office of employee engagement.

The new office will oversee the development of policies and practices to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, servant leadership and career development at the organization. National Church Residences has also established a dashboard that will track metrics including management and leadership diversity, employee retention and referrals, career readiness and staff mobility.

Willis, who formerly worked as the organization’s senior vice president of human resources, will head up the office as senior vice president of employee engagement and chief diversity officer. Julie Fox, formerly National Church Residences’ vice president of education, will work as vice president of engagement and leadership development.

Lancaster Pollard Expands Senior Housing and Health Care Team

Lancaster Pollard Mortgage Company, which is a division of ORIX Real Estate Capital, has announced several new promotions meant to expand its senior housing and health care production team.

Michael Blackwell has joined the team of Chief Production Officer Aaron Becker. In his new role, will be responsible for coverage in Lancaster Pollard’s Northeast market. Blackwell first joined Lancaster Pollard as an associate in 2016.

Brad Granger, Kevin Laidlaw and Adam Walter have joined the team led by Quintin Harris in the firm’s Midwest region. Granger, a director, leads the clinical risk group at Lancaster Pollard and its Five-Star Program analysis. He is expanding his role to include origination efforts.

In Chicago, Lancaster Pollard named Kevin Laidlaw a director in its senior and health care production team. He previously was part of the firm’s mergers and acquisitions team.

Adam Walter, a vice president, is also expanding his role to include origination efforts for clients in the company’s Midwest region. He first joined Lancaster Pollard in 2015.

And in the firm’s Western region, Justin LeBell has joined the senior housing and health care team as an assistant vice president. He previously helped analyze long-term care and acute care organizations while providing support for bond transactions and mortgage loans for rehabilitation, new construction and refinance projects adding up to about $225 million.

Former HUD Director Joins Greystone

Greystone has hired former Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) director Patrick Berry as a senior production manager.

In his new role, he will work with one of the firm’s health care and multifamily origination teams. Specifically, he will work with Fred Levine, a longtime managing director at Greystone.

While at HUD, Berry most recently worked as director of production for FHA 232 loans. Over his 35-year career in the U.S. agency, he also worked as operations officer, financial analyst, policy specialist, loan specialist and Auditor.

Sonata Names Regional Business Development Director

Sonata Senior Living has appointed Bridget McNally Perers as its regional director of business development.

In her new role, Perers is tasked with directing the strategic growth, sales, and marketing efforts of Sonata’s new developments, acquisitions, and turnarounds. She will also assist with portfolio communications, public relations and strategic planning.

Perers has spent the last 12 years in the senior living industry. Overall, she has 20 years of leadership experience in sales and marketing strategies across multiple industries.

Caledonia Recruits Hospitality Industry Leader

Caledonia Senior Living, the primary charity of the Illinois nonprofit Chicago Scots, has hired Jamie Kluz as its new director of food service and promoted Beth Tyk to the role of pastry chef.

Kluz’s experience includes Boka, Graham Elliot, the Peninsula Hotel and most recently, Chicago restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You. Caledonia hired Kluz amid a growing trend of senior living providers recruiting displaced hospitality workers.

Tyk, meanwhile, is a 14-year veteran of Caledonia. As pastry chef, she will help the organization offer its residents more home-baked goods.

United Methodist Communities Promotes Two Leaders in Home Care, Memory Care

United Methodist Communities (UMC) has promoted Deborah Walsh to the role of corporate director of home care services, and Pamela Garofolo to the role of corporate director of tapestries.

In her new role, Garofolo will provide resources and help oversee UMC’s Tapestries memory care programming. She also will lead UMC’s Community Life cohort. Garofolo started with UMC in 2008 as a director of memory support, and has helped develop and refine the organization’s memory care program.

As director of home care services, Walsh will oversee UMC’s HomeWorks program, as well as its initiatives related to home care products and services. Walsh has worked for UMC since it started its home care division in 2016.

SageLife Welcomes New VP of Sales and Marketing

SageLife has named Ellen Stokes as its new vice president of sales and marketing.

In her new role, Stokes is tasked with overseeing marketing, branding and lead generation for SageLife’s communities.

Stokes has experience in developing brands in senior living, health care, and higher education. She previously worked as vice president of marketing at Brightview Senior Living.

WesleyLife Appoints Regional Director of Campus Operations

WesleyLife has named Matt Garcia as its regional director of campus operations, with a start date on Oct. 26.

As regional director of campus operations, he will oversee WesleyLife’s communities in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. Garcia is currently an operations officer and chief people development officer for Western Home Services. He has 25 years of experience in the health care and aging services industries overall.

New Medical Director Joins California Health Center

Dr. Melissa Siew is now medical director for The Orchards Health Center, a senior housing and care community in Rancho Mission Viejo, California.

As medical director, Siew will oversee medical care for the health center’s assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing residents. She also will help provide resident care and staff training, review and evaluate administrative and patient care policies and act as a liaison between the facility and attending physicians.

California Community Welcomes New Executive Director, Associate ED

Cypress Place Senior Living, a senior living community managed by Meridian Senior Living in Ventura, California, has added Gina Salman as its new executive director and Colleen Webb as its new associate executive director.

Salman has more than seven years of health care experience in the healthcare field, with a background that includes administration and marketing for senior living communities. Webb meanwhile, spent eight years as the senior business office director at Cypress Place Senior Living. Overall, she has 14 years of management and financial experience.

Integral Names Vibrant Life Director in California

WindChime of Marin, an Integral Senior Living community in Kentfield, California, has welcome Julie Smolenski as the community’s director overseeing its Vibrant Life program.

Smolenski has eight years of experience working in memory care and skilled nursing settings.

Singh Community Hires Marketing Manager in North Carolina

Waltonwood Cary Parkway, a Singh Senior Living community in Cary, North Carolina, has named Martha Bader as its new marketing manager.

Bader has more than four years of senior living experience.

Former BMG Chief Strategy Officer Joins OdessaConnect

Jessica Heck, formerly the chief strategy officer of Blake Management Group, has joined OdessaConnect, the tech platform that used to be known as myFamilyChannel, as chief business development officer.

Heck began her role in August, and her first initiative was to lead the company’s rebranding. She joined the company with nearly a decade in the senior living industry, with past experience at BMG, Atria Senior Living, Elmcroft Senior Living and Milestone.

OdessaConnect offers multiple products geared toward helping operators boost resident, staff, and family communication, grow and maintain occupancy, become more efficient, better manage workers and more effectively engage residents.

Kare Hires Chief Growth Officer

Kare, a senior living staffing app meant to connect senior housing and care communities with workers, has hired Steph Kolbo as chief growth officer.

Kolbo joins Kare as it prepares for new growth. The company has expanded to several markets in Texas and Georgia, and under Kolbo’s guidance, is looking to expand “significantly” over the next 18 months.Specifically, Kolbo will help will aid the company’s customer and geographic growth, while also helping to increase its pipeline of senior living “heroes” by forging ties with nursing and vocational schools.

She previously worked at NRC Health, where she spent the past decade.

Bluespire Names New VP of Senior Living

Bluespire, a digital marketing agency that works exclusively with senior living, health care, and financial services companies, has named Sara Montalto as its new vice president of senior living.

In her new role, Montalto will focus on helping owners, developers and operators with pricing analysis and develop recommendations to improve community marketability. She also will aid in lead sales and marketing assessment, developing residence mix and pricing and conduct market analysis and consumer research.

Montalto has 17 years of experience in senior living overall, with time spent in both the agency and client sides of the industry.

Roobrik Names Chief Technology Officer

Roobrik, a provider of prospect engagement and decision support tools for senior living providers, has promoted Anand Raman to the role of chief technology officer.

In his new role, Raman is tasked with overseeing all technology operations for the firm.

Raman previously led the development of the Roobrik Platform as head of IT and infrastructure, including the development of its assessment engine and machine learning algorithms. He also designed the company’s SaaS distribution platform, which supports more than 50 senior living clients today.

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The Black Lives Matter movement focused global attention on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion this year, and senior living providers have responded in various ways to calls for change.

This work has been ongoing at National Church Residences, one of the largest nonprofit senior housing providers in the United States, with about 310 senior living and affordable housing communities across 25 states and Puerto Rico. Now, the organization has launched an Office of Employee Engagement that is dedicated to driving meaningful — and measurable — improvement.

“We will hold our organization accountable to the immediate change we want to see in the world,” National Church Residences President and CEO Mark Ricketts said, in an announcement of the new office.

The nonprofit has elevated two executives — Danielle Willis and Julie Fox — to new roles, and they are leading the Office of Employee Engagement. Willis is now senior vice president of employee engagement and chief diversity officer, and Fox is vice president of engagement and leadership development.

National Church Residences has been pursuing greater diversity, equity and inclusion for several years, but shifted into a new gear after the killing of George Floyd by police, Willis told Senior Housing News. The organization made public and private commitments to combating systemic racism and created an anti-racism task force.

That task force officially kicked off around Juneteenth, with 12 members and a charter. Those 12 members included a cross-section of people from the workforce of 2,800 employees, including frontline and corporate positions. The task force identified 10 areas of focus, such as resident accountability/education and minority partnerships, and then solicited additional staff to provide recommendations on those areas. In all, about 60 people — including senior leaders — were involved.

“We wanted to ensure that staff recognized this isn’t an HR thing, but this is about the entire organization,” Willis said.

In light of all the feedback received through this effort — as well as through surveys, work groups, culture committees and other initiatives going back at least to 2018 — the organization’s executive and board leaders recognized that dedicated resources would be required to achieve the needed progress. Given that National Church Residences is on a July 1 – June 30 budget cycle, the board was able to allocate these resources over the summer and stand up the new office.

The office currently consists of just Willis and Fox, but they are working in close concert across the organization and in particular with the HR and education division. National Church Residences also has been working since 2018 with Genesis Consulting to get an outside, objective perspective on these issues and efforts at change.

Fox and Willis view the final quarter of 2020 as a period of benchmarking, assessing and surveying, to gauge how National Church Residences is currently doing in areas such as benefits, management training and outside partnerships with minority-led groups.

After assessing where the most significant gaps lie, Willis and Fox will prioritize further action. But, they already have some inkling of where work is needed, thanks to information that has been collected by the anti-racism task force and through other efforts.

“With career development, we’ve heard that more and more individuals would like to grow professionally, advance their careers and be seen as leaders,” Fox told SHN.

Career advancement appears to be an area where many senior living providers could improve. About one in four frontline workers in the industry is Black, according to a 2018 analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. However, there are very few black CEOs or other top leaders in the industry.

National Church Residences already has some tools that can be leveraged to improve upward mobility of workers, Fox noted. One such tool is a modular series of education resources on servant leadership.

The work of the Office of Employee Engagement will be data-driven. The HR team recently hired an HR business analyst, who is working with Willis and Fox on how to analyze demographic information around turnover, retention, career mobility and other areas. Having this information will flag where the organization is falling short and will be a way of tracking progress.

The recent workforce surveys have revealed one clear strength: Workers are united around a common mission of embracing and serving seniors. Willis and Fox plan to build on this foundation as they seek to shift the culture toward a preferred employee experience.

“It’s one thing to stand up an office and have metrics, but how we’re going to get there, how we’re going to make the changes in our culture to be truly responsive to what our staff are telling us, I think that how is important,” Fox said.

In other words, creating new policies and protocols is necessary, but Willis and Fox emphasized that connecting everyone in the organization to the new office’s mission, and demonstrating how everyone has a circle of influence and can play a part in driving toward shared goals, will be keys to achieving lasting change. 

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Affiliations

AccentCare, Seasons Hospice to Merge

AccentCare Inc. and Seasons Hospice announced a merger, Senior Housing News sister publication Home Health Care News reports. The deal brings Dallas-based AccentCare, one of the five largest home health care companies in the country, and Seasons, one of the top five largest hospice providers, under one corporate umbrella.

Once the merger is completed, the combined company will be one of the largest in terms of geographic footprint and array of services provided, with reverberations across the long-term care continuum.

As a combined organization, AccentCare and Seasons can provide a full continuum of care for patients, providing a seamless entry point for skilled home-based care, and transitions to attendant care, palliative care, and hospice. Its scale and ability to function as a single provider will be attractive for senior living operators, AccentCare Vice President, Marketing & Communications Darin Szilagyi told Senior Housing News.

Sales and operator transitions

Benchmark acquires New Hampshire memory care facility

Benchmark Senior Living acquired the real estate and operations of Evolve at Rye, a 40-unit, 64-bed memory care facility in Rye, New Hampshire.

Avamere adds Oregon memory care community

The Avamere Family of Companies added a new memory care community in Bend, Oregon to its portfolio. The Arbor at Bend, formerly known as Mill View Memory Care, joined Avamere Living on November 1.

Blueprint completes 2 transactions

Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors completed the following transactions:

• Senior Managing Director and Head of Business Development Steve Thomes and Managing Director Michael Segal represented Sentara Healthcare in the disposition of its portfolio of skilled nursing and senior housing facilities totaling 876 total beds throughout southern Virginia. The buyer is Omega Healthcare Investors, which then leased the facilities to its operating partner, Saber Healthcare Group, expanding the master lease deal between the two.
• Segal, along with Senior Director Alex Florea and General Counsel Joshua Salzman, represented a REIT owner in the sale of Lakeland Hills Senior Living, a 170-unit senior living community in Dallas. The buyer is a Maryland-based private equity investor.

SLIB completes sale of Michigan senior living campus

Senior Living Investment Brokerage Managing Directors Brad Clousing and Ryan Saul, along with Senior Associate Joe Young, facilitated the sale of The Colonnades, a 38-unit assisted living facility, and The Carriage House, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility. Both are located in Bay City, Michigan. The seller, a family-based business, is exiting the senior living industry.

Bridgewood Property Company acquires land in North Carolina for senior housing development

Bridgewood Property Company recently acquired land in Charlotte, North Carolina, and plans to build The Village on Moorehead, a 12-story, 200-unit senior housing community. Groundbreaking is slated for Spring 2021.

United Properties acquires land for Minnesota senior housing development

United Properties closed on an eight-acre parcel of land in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Five acres are slated for a new 55-plus independent living rental community, ThePOINTE Minnetonka; the remaining three acres will be slated for development at a future date.

United Church Homes acquires 2 Ohio communities

United Church Homes acquired two age-restricted senior apartment communities — Harbor Woods Living at Brunswick in Brunswick, Ohio and Harbor Woods Living at Niles in Niles, Ohio — from Harbor Woods Living. Each community is a four-story, 127-unit building for seniors age 55 and older, in 127 one- and two-bedroom units.

Financings

Ziegler advises on $43M acquisition financing package

Ziegler was the exclusive capital structuring advisor for Radiant Senior Living in a $42.6 million debt placement for the acquisition of three senior housing communities — two near Seattle and a third in Bozeman, Montana. The portfolio consists of 36 independent living units and 204 assisted living units.

Radiant acquired the portfolio from a publicly traded health care REIT as part of their expansion efforts across the country. The properties enjoy in-place, stabilized cash flow and provide opportunity for additional upside through operational efficiencies due to scale. Post-acquisition, Radiant’s portfolio totals 18 communities spanning across six states in the Pacific Northwest. Ziegler Senior Vice President Eric Johnson arranged and negotiated the transaction.

KeyBank secures $31M refinancing for Ohio affordable senior housing property

KeyBank Real Estate Capital (KBREC) and KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM) secured a $31 million refinancing package on behalf of National Church Residences to renovate Carnegie Tower at Fairfax, a 12-story, Section 8 apartment building in Cleveland for seniors age 62 and older, located next to the Cleveland Clinic.

KBREC provided $14 million of permanent financing via a Department of Housing and Urban Development 221(d)4 construction-to-permanent loan, and KBCM sold $17 million of required tax-exempt bonds. Additionally, KeyBank Community Development Corporation provided $10 million of low-income housing tax credit equity to purchase credits awarded to the project.

Robbie Lynn of KBREC’s Commercial Mortgage Group and Kelly Frank and Ryan Olman of KeyBank’s Community Development Lending and Investment team structured the financing. Sam Adams of KBCM led the sale and structuring of the publicly offered tax-exempt bonds.

Ratings Outlooks

Fitch affirms ratings outlooks on 3 CCRCs

Fitch Ratings affirmed the ratings on the following CCRCs:

• Linden Ponds, a community in Hingham, Massachusetts operated by Erickson Living, retained a “BB” rating on $117 million in Series 2018 revenue bonds issued by the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency. This reflects Linden Ponds’ constrained long-term liability profile, which is characterized by a manageable debt burden and hindering subordinate debt structure. The rating outlook is stable.
• Fitch affirmed the “BBB+” rating on $75 million in Series 2017 revenue bonds issued by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission on behalf of Horizon House, a life plan community in Seattle. Key ratings drivers include strong demand, particularly for Horizon House’s independent living segment, an improved liquidity position and solid operational performance. The rating outlook is stable.
• Fitch affirmed the “BBB” rating on $180 million in Series 2011, Series 2013A, Series 2016A, and Series 2018A revenue bonds issued by Indiana Finance Authority on behalf of BHI Senior Living in Indianapolis. Key rating drivers include consistently strong operational performance, robust demand at multiple campuses, ample liquidity and an elevated long-term liability profile. The rating outlook is stable.

Miscellaneous

Standard Communities provides Covid-19 protection kits to residents

Standard Communities provided free Covid-19 protection kits to approximately 18,500 residents of its nearly 9,200 affordable and senior apartment units across the country.

The post Transactions & Financings: AccentCare, Seasons Hospice Merging; Ziegler’s $42M Financing Package appeared first on Senior Housing News.

As calendars flip to December, the exercise of reflecting on the past year and planning for the future is more necessary — and more difficult — than ever.

How to sum up a year marked by Covid-19, protests for racial justice, and a presidential election, among other changes and upheavals? And what lessons can be drawn for 2021, given that the pandemic showed just how unpredictable the future can be?

We hope that our annual compilation of top quotes from senior living leaders will provide a starting point. These 10 quotes tell the story of a monumentally challenging year for senior living and suggest what the future may hold for the industry.

“I think that we’re moving into a decade of disruption.” — Beth Mace, chief economist for the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), Jan. 16, 2020

While no one was predicting a global pandemic would rock the industry, senior living providers were confronting disruptive forces at the start of 2020.

“Disruption is here to stay, if for no other reason than the fact that we’re shifting from the cohort of the greatest generation and the lucky few into the baby boomers, and they are known as a cohort of disruption,” Mace said during an SHN webinar on the 2020 outlook.

She was not alone in making these predictions. While bullish on senior living, LCS CEO Joel Nelson said: “I think [this year] will continue to be filled with disruption and complexity, and I think that will go well beyond 2020.”

Within a few months, Covid-19 would only add further urgency to the big themes that were already being discussed as 2020 began, including how to better leverage technology, how to work more closely with health systems and payers, and how to create a more appealing product for the rising generation of consumers.

“The future of the senior housing industry is not what exists today.” — Thomas DeRosa, then-CEO of Welltower (NYSE: WELL), Feb. 13, 2020

While many senior living leaders were predicting disruption at the outset of 2020, Welltower CEO Tom DeRosa was among those most actively working to change the status quo by creating new models.

Under his tenure, Welltower forged ahead with a strategy of integrating senior housing into the care continuum through joint ventures and other partnerships with health systems and payers. For instance, the real estate investment trust (REIT) is bringing more care on-site in senior living communities through a partnership with Anthem affiliate CareMore, while creating more care options for middle-market independent living residents through its relationship with Geisinger. And the REIT is working with operating partners and technology companies such as Philips to create technologically advanced communities.

DeRosa’s exit from Welltower in October would ultimately be among the unpredictable changes in the industry during 2020. But his successor, Shankh Mitra, affirmed the REIT’s strategic direction, and the Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened the case for finding new ways of bringing care into senior housing settings at various price points.

“After you flip the game board, you have to reset the pieces. That’s where senior living is going to be for the next three to five years — just figuring out how to set the pieces, set up a new game [with] new assumptions, new players, new landscape.” — Dr. Bill Thomas, founder of Eden Alternative, Green House, Minka Homes and Communities, March 25, 2020

The first Senior Housing News article focused on the coronavirus appeared in late February, with ALG Senior Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin O’Neil warning that — if the threat fully materialized — the “effects could be devastating.” About one month later, with communities around the United States in lockdown, senior care innovator Bill Thomas spoke in sweeping terms about the impact that Covid-19 would have on the industry.

At this early stage, providers around the country were scrambling to put new operating protocols in place, were combating fear and uncertainty among residents and staff, and were trying to deal with the devastating effects of Covid-19 outbreaks. But Thomas was confident that high-quality senior living and care providers soon would learn how to secure their buildings and — to the greatest extent possible — protect older adults from the disease.

He appears to have been correct in this prediction, based on the low infection rates reported by the publicly traded providers and REITs. Only time will tell whether he will be correct about how the proverbial chess board of the industry will be reset differently over the next several years.

Among his predictions: the job description for senior living workers will change as a result of seeing the risks they took — and the relatively low pay and prestige they received — during Covid-19; the move to home- and community-based care will accelerate, and communal living models will become less dense; and the “leisure lifestyle” vision of senior living will go away, in favor of a more balanced offering focused on health and wellness.

“We’re not getting that message out at all. The industry is being extremely quiet and waiting for Covid to just go away.” — Larry Kutscher, CEO of A Place for Mom, April 17, 2020

During the second full month of the Covid-19 pandemic, a theme emerged: Senior housing providers were not doing enough to tell their stories and differentiate themselves from skilled nursing.

It’s a problem as old as the private-pay senior living industry itself — the public does not understand the differences between traditional nursing homes and independent living, assisted living and memory care communities. But in the pandemic, this confusion had dire consequences. There was a torrent of news about horrific circumstances and high death tolls in nursing homes, and these stories failed to distinguish between different types of senior housing.

Meanwhile, older adults with pressing needs were not sure where to turn, and senior living providers were dropping the ball about spreading the word that they were largely succeeding in keeping residents and staff safe, and were able to accept move-ins, APFM’s Kutscher observed.

Others echoed his concerns, including leaders with Bickford Senior Living. The Olathe, Kansas-based provider has been an example of transparency, posting Covid-19 infection numbers publicly for each of its communities since early in the pandemic. Trilogy Health Services has also created a public-facing website with a plethora of Covid-19 data. The industry group POSH formed to help push back against the bad press, and ASHA likewise has launched a public relations campaign.

So, the industry now is less “quiet” than it was earlier in the year, but it still has a long way to go to tout its successes in keeping residents safe — and getting consumers to understand the difference between private-pay senior living and nursing homes is an even tougher task. Working toward that goal is sure to occupy providers in 2021 and beyond, but embracing greater transparency is one potentially promising first step. That means being more forthcoming and proactive with the press, sharing more information — including about pricing — on company websites, and engaging more effectively with consumers on social media and other platforms where they are increasingly finding information.

“I believe if the government mandates you close your doors and adds many additional restrictions/regulations, they have an obligation to offer relief.” — Roger Bernier, President and COO, Chelsea Senior Living, May 21, 2020

Through the first months of Covid-19, senior living providers and industry associations were clamoring for financial relief and other support such as access to personal protective equipment and testing. But their pleas appeared to fall largely on deaf ears, as senior living was largely sidelined while support flowed to hospitals, nursing homes and other industries such as hospitality and airlines.

By May, frustration was reaching a boiling point. Providers in the Northeast, like Chelsea Senior Living, had been hit hard by the first wave of the virus and were still reeling from restrictions on move-ins. Making matters worse, the state of New Jersey was implementing new regulations that applied equally to nursing homes and assisted living, not acknowledging the differences in their operating models and resident bases.

This points to a larger issue. Just as consumers have confusion about what exactly “assisted living” is, so too do lawmakers and regulators. Their lack of familiarity with the private-pay senior living industry is one of the primary reasons why financial relief and other aid was slow to reach providers, American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living CEO Mark Parkinson would explain.

Meaningful financial relief finally began flowing to assisted living providers in September. While still not adequate to support the steep losses that providers have incurred, the relief is welcome, and further money may be on the way.

The flip side is that by lobbying long and hard for financial support, industry advocates educated lawmakers about the role that assisted living plays in the health care system and may have paved the way toward new federal regulations. Now, the industry may be facing a tricky decision about how much to fight against regulation, or whether working cooperatively with Congress is the best approach. Possible upsides to federal regulation could be a standardized definition of assisted living that creates more consumer clarity, and less likelihood that states will enact blanket regulations that treat nursing homes and assisted living as one and the same.

“The big companies are going to recognize this product type, and they’re going to recognize that smaller is better.” — Jim Stroud, President of Sonoma House Assisted Living & Alzheimer’s Care, co-founder and former chairman of Capital Senior Living, June 3, 2020

Even before Covid-19, senior living developers and operators were increasingly interested in small-house models. Bill Thomas’ Green House communities and Minka homes were prime examples, but newer ventures like Cantina Communities also saw great promise in communities of small homes were older adults could balance privacy and socialization. Advances in modular construction and technology — including on-demand services like Uber and Peapod — were supporting these new models.

The pandemic immediately and dramatically increased the appeal of small house-style senior living. Being isolated in an apartment unit in a building where common areas were closed compared poorly to living in a small house, near other people but safely distanced from them, with easy access to outdoor areas.

“I think a smaller, self-contained, autonomously functioning residence is far better than [one with] long hallways, semi-private rooms or even three- and four-person rooms,” Green House Senior Director Susan Ryan told SHN. “How much easier is it to contain a virus, and everybody’s got their own room, breathing their own air?”

Anecdotal evidence supported the notion that small houses were easier to keep infection-free. If further data emerges to illustrate this was the case, expect even greater interest from investors and operators as they consider expansion options coming out of the pandemic. Already, architecture firms such as Perkins Eastman are considering various ways of adapting small house formats for different project types, including vertical models with more self-contained living and common areas than traditionally have been built.

“Covid shifted the value proposition completely.” — Matt Stevenson, COO of Oakmont Senior Living, June 29, 2020

The pandemic immediately forced senior living operators to adjust how they run buildings on a day-to-day basis. By summer, it was clear that an even larger shift was occurring: Covid-19 was forcing providers to re-consider the fundamental value proposition of their communities for consumers.

Providers known for their luxurious communities were investing substantially to upgrade their health care capabilities, and pivoting their sales and marketing to emphasize safety and security.

“Pre-Covid, our value proposition was the luxury of a highly amenitized building, hospitality, renowned five-star dining experiences, amenities like massage rooms, fitness centers, pool, spa and sauna … and that’s what enticed many seniors to move into our community,” Oakmont Senior Living COO Matt Stevenson told SHN. “Covid shifted the value proposition completely.”

Oakmont set up a multi-discipline task force aimed at Covid-19 mitigation, converted some of its senior housing units to quarantine rooms, linked up with a laboratory, hired a medical director and “completely transformed” its sales process.

Other providers — including Aegis Living, Solera Senior Living, Artis Senior Living and Koru Health — have made similar adjustments and investments. Among the most common moves: Partnering with health systems and medical experts, implementing new technology aimed at infection control and other health-related objectives, and rolling out new marketing materials that emphasize safety.

Senior living providers are not abandoning the social model that has driven much success across the industry, but rather are making more strenuous efforts to integrate clinical capabilities. In other words, the pandemic has settled the longstanding “health care versus hospitality” debate — going forward, any provider will have a tough time arguing that senior living is not, or should not be, a health care product. This may end up being one of the most significant long-term effects of Covid-19 for the industry.

“Unless we are intentional about seeking out historically underrepresented classes, I don’t think we can move the needle in any positive direction.” — Aaron Webb, CEO of CHI Living Communities, July 21, 2020

The killing of George Floyd sparked massive protests and gave momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. As part of the larger social reckoning, voices within senior living once again drew attention to longstanding problems related to diversity and equity in the industry.

A particularly glaring problem is the imbalance between the diversity of the frontline workforce and the lack of diversity within the industry’s leadership ranks. In July, Aaron Webb became one of the few Black senior living CEOs when he took that role with CHI Living Communities. One of his first orders of business was to ask for a breakdown of all of the company’s different employees and residents, organized by their race.

“The numbers were nowhere close to where they could be, or should be, on either count,” Webb told SHN.

Remedying this is one of Webb’s top priorities, beginning with an evaluation of how and where the organization is recruiting new employees. Other providers have also launched concerted efforts to increase diversity and equity, including National Church Residences, Eclipse Senior Living and Presbyterian Villages of Michigan.

But the road is a long and hard one. As Kendal Corp. COO Marvell Adams told SHN, there’s no “flip to switch” that can make leadership more diverse overnight. Investment in young people who are just joining the industry is needed.

And while encouraged by the changes being made in light of Black Lives Matter, Adams also emphasized that successful efforts are rooted in a genuine commitment to hard changes.

“Just being able to say, ‘Okay, yeah, we just did this training so we’re good,’ or ‘We sent out a letter, great,’ — I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about,” he said. “I think we really are talking about recognizing what the challenges are for people of color to be a part of our organizations as residents, staff, or board members. And then, how can we remove those barriers?”

“We’re going to try to be the Tesla of senior housing.” — David Freshwater, Chairman of Watermark Retirement Communities, Oct. 14, 2020

All the challenges of 2020 did not dampen the ambitions of many senior living providers, and for some the pandemic fueled further innovation.

Watermark certainly remains committed to innovation, as Chairman David Freshwater made clear during a fireside chat at SHN’s BUILD event, held virtually this year. The Tucson-based provider is moving ahead with a “precision wellness” model, which takes the company’s long-standing interest in whole-person wellness to new levels. Aras Erekul, formerly a leader with pioneering wellness organization Canyon Ranch, is on board to help drive the effort.

Watermark also recently opened a new community in New York City, having repositioned a historic building in Brooklyn Heights at a project cost of about $330 million. The community is one of several coming online in the Big Apple, which are redefining what the top of the market can look like in senior living.

But other providers also are incorporating lessons learned during 2020 as they adapt and evolve for the future. Louisville, Kentucky-based Atria Senior Living, for example, is touting its “community of the future” in Newport Beach, California.

Covid-related uncertainty will persist into 2021, and providers will be focused on rebuilding occupancy and carefully managing their strained budgets — but as efforts at Watermark, Atria and other companies demonstrate, forward-thinking organizations also will be innovating and taking risks to meet a changing market.

“We know [Biden’s] focus moving forward is going to be around home- and community-based services with an emphasis on residents aging in place, which is what we offer.” — James Balda, CEO of Argentum, Nov. 8, 2020

As the year comes to an end, the political order in Washington, D.C. is changing.

A Biden presidential administration could increase the likelihood of federal assisted living regulation and might dampen prospects for robust litigation protections related to Covid-19. But the Biden White House also might prioritize the pandemic-related needs of senior housing and care providers more highly, while creating a more predictable environment overall.

“With a moderate Democratic president, a Democratic House, and what will certainly be a closely divided Senate, that will push us toward more consistency in policy, more moderation in policy, more likely to be steady as she goes — and that’s quite a favorable backdrop for Ventas, and hopefully for the country as well,” Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro said during the company’s Q3 2020 earnings call.

Biden’s specific policy proposals have centered on greater support for home- and community-based services, which conceivably could include policies that relate to senior living. For instance, he floated the idea of a “long-term services and supports innovation fund” to create alternatives to institutional care for older adults.

Given the balance of power in Congress is yet to be determined, pending the Georgia run-offs, the new political reality is still taking shape. But one thing is certain: After a year of massive change, senior living providers are again getting ready to adapt.

The post 10 Quotes That Capture 2020 — And Suggest What’s Next for Senior Living appeared first on Senior Housing News.

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Trilogy Health Services Announces New COO, Board Member

Trilogy Health Services has announced that Todd Mehaffey is its new COO, and Pattie Dale Tye is its newest board of directors member.

As COO, Mehaffey is tasked with overseeing day-to-day operations for Trilogy’s more than 110 communities. He also is responsible for achieving the company’s operating strategies and mission.

Mehaffey has about 25 years of experience supporting older adults. Before joining Trilogy, he held leadership roles with organizations in Kentucky, Florida, and in the mid-Atlantic.

Trilogy also named Pattie Dale Tye as the newest member of its board of directors. In that capacity, Tye will help guide the company’s business strategy. Tye’s past experience includes working as president, COO, and district leader for public and privately held companies.

Westmont Living Appoints CFO

Westmont Living has appointed Jason Ballow as its new CFO.

Ballow, who has spent about 20 years in the finance and commercial real estate sectors, officially joined the provider in November. Before joining Westmont, he worked as vice president of development for Dallas-based Trammell Crow.

Sabra Expands Board of Directors With New Member

Sabra Health Care REIT (NASDAQ: SBRA)’s board of directors has appointed Ann Kono as a new member. The move expands the board from nine members to 10.

Kono is the CEO and founder of Leda Advisory Group, a management consulting firm that advises startup companies on growth and scale. She has more than 20 years of experience in the finance industry overall.

Discovery Appoints Director of Memory Care Programs

Discovery Senior Living has appointed Dawn Platt to the newly created role of director of memory care programs.

Platt’s new position will task her with managing the company’s Shine memory care program. She will also work to continue to advance memory care initiatives at Discovery’s communities.

Platt previously worked at Legend Senior Living, where she held various positions during her 12 years there. During that time, she managed the provider’s bio-feedback robotic therapy using Paro devices and its neuroplasticity therapeutic programming.

Legacy Promotes Gibson to VP of Operations

Legacy Senior Living has promoted Jason Gibson to the role of vice president of operations.

The promotion expands the scope of Gibson’s role and tasks him with overseeing the organization’s 14 senior living communities in the Southeast.

Gibson first joined Legacy as an operations specialist, and most recently worked as regional director of operations. He has spent about 26 years in the senior living industry overall.

Dominion Names Wellness VP

Dominion Senior Living recently hired Rick Kral as vice president of wellness.

In his new role, Kral will oversee and guide the company’s wellness initiative while managing the planning, direction and implementation of wellness programming, policies and procedures.

Kral has more than 10 years of experience in the senior living industry. He previously held roles such as divisional vice president of care services with Enlivant; vice president of clinical services and director of risk for Vanguard Healthcare; and regional director of clinical services with Life Care Centers of America.

Cypress Living Names VP of Clinical Services

Cypress Living has promoted Louisa Cannamela to the role of vice president of clinical services.

As VP of clinical services, Cannamela will develop clinical policies, procedures, and processes for the organization. She is the former director of nursing of home care for Cypress at Home.

Solvere Announces New Regional VP

Solvere Living has hired Lori Silinskie to work as its new regional vice president.

Silinskie, who has spent more than 30 years in the senior living sector, previously owned her own senior housing management and consulting firm.

Claiborne Adds Two to Management Team

Claiborne Senior Living has added Cory Rogers and Amber Thomas to its corporate management team.

Rogers, who is the company’s new regional director of operations, is now responsible for communities in Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana. He previously worked with Enlivant Senior Living.

Thomas, meanwhile, is joining the company as a regional nurse consultant. She has nearly a decade of management experience in health care, and previously worked as regional director of resident care and nursing at Cedarhurst Senior Living.

New York Community Names New CEO

Longview, a senior living community in Ithaca, New York, has named Paul Phillips as its new CEO. The appointment is effective on Jan. 11.

Philips is slated to replace Mark Macera, the community’s outgoing executive director, according to local news site Ithaca.com.

Tennessee Community Names Executive Director

Linda Shriver-Buckner is now executive director at East Ridge Residence, an independent living community in East Ridge, Tennessee.

Shriver-Buckner previously worked as the community’s sales director. East Ridge is jointly owned by Veritas Senior Living and Atlas Senior Living.

National Church Residences Community Names Executive Director

National Church Residences has hired a new executive director for a community in Florida.

Water’s Edge of Bradenton, a senior living community in Bradenton, Florida, is welcoming Delane Duncan-Ward as its new executive director. In the new role, Duncan-Ward will oversee the community’s day-to-day operations, such as its budget management, regulatory compliance, marketing activities and staff guidance.

She has more than 30 years of experience in the senior living industry, and has served as executive director and administrative officer in senior living and health care communities in central Florida.

Ohio Living Announces Two New Divisional Executive Directors

Ohio Living has appointed Leslie Belfance and Dean Palombaro as divisional executive directors.

They are tasked with managing operations at Ohio Living’s 12 life care communities. Specifically, they will help support and expand Ohio Living’s mission in current and new markets.

Singh Community in North Carolina Names Move-in Coordinator, Life Enrichment Manager

Waltonwood Cary Parkway in Cary, North Carolina, has named Sintayehu Lenahan as the community’s new independent living life enrichment manager, and Matthew Delgado as its new move-in coordinator.

Lenahan has more than two years of experience, and most recently worked in the assisted living and memory care neighborhoods at Waltonwood Cary Parkway. Delgado, meanwhile, has a background in the moving industry, and is set to help residents make a smooth transition into the community.

Acts Announces New Board Appointments

Acts Retirement has named Jim Ryan to the board of directors of Integrace, a nonprofit representing three Acts affiliate communities in Maryland; and named Dr. Gene Lammers to its board of directors at Westminster Village, an Acts affiliate community in Spanish Fort, Alabama.

Ryan is a resident of Acts community Buckingham’s Choice, where he serves as president of the community’s resident association. Lammer currently works as medical director at Mercy Life of Alabama. He also works as an adjunct clinical professor of medicine at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine.

CareOne Names Senior VP of Integrated Health Network

Toni Loyas has joined CareOne as senior vice president of integrated health network.

In her new role, Loyas is responsible for interacting with ACOs, bundle programs and hospital systems. She will also continue to work as vice chairwomen of St. Joseph’s Healthcare System in Patterson, New Jersey,.

LW Consulting Expands With Two New Hires

LW Consulting has hired Annette Sanders as senior consultant and Seth Anthony as marketing and business development manager.

Sanders, a registered nurse, has more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry. Her specializations include compliance, quality improvement, education, and improvement in the field of long-term care nursing.

Anthony meanwhile is tasked with finding opportunities for new long-term partnerships and managing the public image of the business. Before joining LW Consulting, he led sales and marketing efforts for an architectural firm with a focus on senior living.

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Planned

Vi Community in Florida Plans $41M Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing Renovation Project

Vi at Bentley Village, a Vi community in Naples, Florida, is set to overhaul and upgrade its assisted living and skilled nursing residences.

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Essex Communities Names New President, CEO

Essex Communities has promoted Frankie Pane to the role of president and COO; and Michael McGillick to the role of CEO.

Pane, who joined Essex in 2003, will in his new role continue corporate oversight as well as provide strategic direction for the company’s growth and services.

As CEO, McGillick is tasked with overseeing the Essex team as it develops, constructs, markets, and manages its 55-plus senior housing community portfolio.

Watercrest Names VP of Sales Education

Watercrest Senior Living Group has added Michael Marlow to its executive leadership team as vice president of sales education.

In his new role, Marlow will work to build sales training and implementation in order to aid lead management and referral development for Watercrest Senior Living and the communities it operates.

Marlow has about 30 years of experience in senior living sales and marketing. He most recently worked as national sales engagement manager for a large national senior living provider.

Emerald Communities Appoints CFO

Emerald Communities, which sponsors Emerald Heights in Redmond, Washington; and Heron’s Key in Gig Harbor, Washington; has named Matthew McArthur as its vice president and CFO.

As CFO of Emerald Communities, McArthur is responsible for operation and strategy of the organization’s finance, accounting and IT departments. He has more than 20 years of experience leading finance and accounting teams, and he most recently worked as director of finance and treasurer at Puget Sound Energy.

National Church Residences Names CFO

Robert Walter is now executive vice president and chief financial officer of National Church Residences. He is succeeding Tanya Hahn, who will remain with the organization as a senior advisor.

Walter was previously CFO at EWI for a period of about five years. He also served on the National Church Residences’ board of directors from 2010 to 2019, working as a member of the finance and audit committee and previous chairman of the investment committee.

Country Meadows COO Mills Adds President to Title

Country Meadows Retirement Communities COO Meredith Mills is now also the company’s president.

Mills added the president title in May, according to her LinkedIn. She previously was senior vice president and COO, and continues to lead the company’s strategic and operational direction.

Health Services Management Names New CEO, COO

The board of directors of Health Services Management has named Jim Shatz as the company’s CEO and promoted Joshua White from vice president of operations to COO.

Shatz has since 2017 served on the company’s board as an independent director. He will continue to lead the company’s planning and growth in his new role.

White as COO will oversee the operations of the company’s 21 affiliated communities. He joined the organization in 2017.

Startup Accelerator Names Managing Director for Senior Care Program

Startup accelerator Techstars has named Keith Camhi as the new managing director of its Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator, which focuses on “creative caregiving solutions to address elder care.”

Camhi previously led Techstar’s global accelerator team, and founded two health- and fitness-tech startups.

Standard Communities Names Director of Northeast Development

The affordable housing division of Standard Companies hired Sean Carpenter to the newly created role of director of northeast development.

In his new role, Carpenter will focus on New England, and work to aid new construction deals for affordable senior housing. He came to the organization from AHSC, Inc., a non-profit affordable housing developer.

Anthem Community Names Community Relations Director

Greenridge Place, an Anthem Memory Care-operated community in Westminster, Colorado, has named Beth Andrews as community relations director.

Andrews has worked in marketing and admissions roles for senior housing and care throughout her 20-year career, and most recently was director of community relations for MorningStar Senior Living.

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National Church Residences President and CEO Mark Ricketts has announced his retirement after a more than two-decade career with the organization.

The Columbus, Ohio-based senior living and affordable senior housing organization’s board of directors announced the planned leadership transition Wednesday. Ricketts is set to officially retire in June, 2023.

Ricketts joined the organization in 2000 and ascended to the CEO role in 2014. Although National Church Residences has existed for six decades, he is only its third president and CEO. During his tenure, he helped grow the nonprofit’s scale to about 360 affordable senior housing and senior living communities. The organization’s base of operations is concentrated in Ohio, but its affordable housing division spans 24 states.

As he starts to head for the exit, Ricketts believes he is leaving the organization in good hands. Just in the last three years, National Church Residences has named a new CFO, chief human resources officer, senior vice president of senior living and a new senior vice president of affordable housing.

And it is that team, along with Ricketts’ successor, that will lead the organization to its new goal of more than doubling its reach to serve 100,000 older adults by 2030.

“We need to serve 54,000 more seniors in the next eight years, and I won’t see the finish. So, I might as well let somebody else lead,” he told Senior Housing News. “The pavement is laid and the board is behind the mission.”

People, partners, performance

To achieve its goal of serving more than double its current reach, the organization is leaning on three main pillars: people, partners and performance.

Regarding people, Ricketts said it is consistently the number-one constraint to operations. But he also acknowledged that these are not easy careers, and that the industry must “figure out a way to capture the hearts and the desires of workers.”

“[We aspire] to be servant leaders — people who are good listeners, connectors, that invest in people and that inspire,” he said. “We just want to have a good workforce.”

Regarding partnerships, Ricketts said that although the organization has no big plans to announce in the near future, he sees more mergers, acquisitions and affiliations in National Church Residences’ future.

“We will probably acquire some, we will probably merge with somebody,” he said.

And in the third category, performance, Ricketts said it has been a goal to stand toe-to-toe with the for-profit senior housing operators. That starts with a keen focus on rates, costs and margins — something he said “has not always been the not-for-profit way.”

“We are competing with the for-profit world everywhere we go,” Ricketts said. “You’ve got to have excellent performance metrics, compare yourself to the marketplace — compete.”

That financial discipline is reflected in the organization’s strong balance sheet. In the last five years alone, National Church Residences has invested $100 million acquiring, building and investing in senior housing communities.

Today, Ricketts estimates the National Church Residences Foundation has about $125 million in the bank earmarked for advancing the mission and growing the organization.

As he looks back on his time at the organization, Ricketts said he is most proud of the last five years despite encountering greater challenges than the organization had ever faced before with the pandemic.

He is also proud of building a more diverse organization. As of the beginning of the coming year, the National Church Residences board will be composed of 11 men and 10 women, more than a third of which are people of color. And, nearly two-thirds of the company’s executive directors and managers are women, and 35% are people of color.

Now, National Church Residences is taking that momentum and bringing it to the organization’s top echelons.

“We’ve done it in the boardroom, we’ve done it in the manager level, and now we need to make that a goal for the senior executive level,” Ricketts said.

A larger goal is to steward the organization through its transition to a more managed care model. As he looks to the future, Ricketts sees a world where the organization serves 100,000 older adults through a wide variety of services and supports. That is not just limited to affordable housing, but also home health, hospice, social work and primary care.

National Church Residences is also soon launching what Ricketts called a “benefits navigation mission,” where the organization would help seniors enroll in programs such as Medicare Advantage.

As for what comes next for him personally, Ricketts said plans to spend time with family and devote more hours to Bible Study Fellowship, a bible study organization that has more than 400,000 participants across the globe which he is passionate about.

While he said he may serve on the boards of other senior living organizations in the future, he doesn’t think in the future he’ll lead another senior housing organization as he does today.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody asked me to come sit on their board,” he said. “But if I’m going to keep doing this mission, I’m going to do it here.”

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