Two-Facility Deal in Florida; Meridian Arranges Financing for Eight SNFs

Blueprint Health Care Announces Two-SNF Deal in Florida

The Chicago-based Blueprint Health Care Real Estate Advisors assisted a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) in selling two non-core assets in DeLand, Fla.: University Center East and University Center West. One of the skilled nursing facilities had been flagged as a Special Focus Facility by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the eventual buyer was an owner-operator that focuses primarily on turnaround opportunities. The University Center deal marked the first transaction in the Southwest for the buyer.

Blueprint’s Ben Firestone, Michael Segal, and Trent Gherardini worked on the transaction.

Meridian Capital Group Announces Funding for Eight SNFs

From mid-March to early May, New York-based Meridian Capital Group’s senior housing and health care team arranged $121.5 million in financing, a number that included financing for eight SNFs in Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland.

The closings included $42.4 million in acquisition financing and a line of credit for a 230-bed SNF in Miami Beach, Fla., as well as $17.4 million in financing to refinance a 130-bed skilled nursing facility in Berkeley Heights, N.J.

Meridian also arranged a $21.5 million refinance for two SNFs with 240 total beds in Norwalk and Bucks Hill, Conn., $10.2 million to refinance a 120-bed SNF in Fort Myers, Fla., and a $9.2 million acquisition loan for a 106-bed SNF in Baltimore.

University Health Converting Hospital Floors to Skilled Nursing

University Health Care System’s board voted to invest almost $4 million into its hospital the Summerville neighborhood of Augusta, Ga. — $2.9 million of which will go to converting three floors into an 80-bed SNF, The Augusta Chronicle reported. The beds will be moved from University’s 193-bed Extended Care Amara facility.

“The physical plant itself at Amara does not allow us to optimize 193 licenses,” Tom Lowenkamp, University’s vice president of operations, said in a presentation, according to the Chronicle. “We are probably not going to see our census grow past 100 in that building. So without being able to optimize those licenses, we can’t capture that market share.”

University Health Care System has facilities in Georgia and South Carolina.

Written by Maggie Flynn and Alex Spanko