Avamere Moves Forward with Nursing Home Exit as Cascadia Expands Footprint with 22 Properties

Avamere is making good on its plan to exit the skilled nursing business, with landlord Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA) announcing plans Tuesday to transition all 26 of its leased Avamere properties to new operators, including 22 that would be taken over by Cascadia Healthcare. 

The remaining four would be transferred to another existing Sabra tenant. It is unclear how many of the 26 properties are skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). 

The transition is expected to be completed during the second half of 2026.

Sabra, which noted the transaction in a business update Tuesday, noted that it has entered into letters of intent to re-tenant all of its 26 properties leased to Avamere.

“The Avamere transition has been well-planned and is benefiting from a high level of cooperation across the various parties involved, following outreach to Sabra earlier this year by founder, Rick Miller, who indicated a desire to exit the skilled nursing business,” Sabra CEO Rick Matros said in a press release.

Under the proposed transition, 22 properties would be transferred to subsidiaries of Cascadia Healthcare, a leading healthcare operator in the Pacific Northwest.

Cascadia currently operates more than 61 long-term care facilities across Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Arizona.

Idaho-based Cascadia was founded in 2015 by CEO Owen Hammond, who was previously the President of California-based Signum Healthcare, a subsidiary of the Ensign Group (Nasadaq: ENSG).

Cascadia has established a strong reputation of operational excellence focused on empowering local leaders to drive superior clinical outcomes, Sabra’s press release noted.

Steve LaForte, chief financial officer and principal at Cascadia, told Skilled Nursing News that all the Avamere facilities his organization is acquiring are located in the Pacific Northwest.

“The acquisition, with a lease arrangement with Sabra, pursuant to their announcement, is an exciting one for Cascadia. As contemplated it will expand our footprint in the Pacific Northwest, with the addition of 22 Facilities, giving us added scope for resource support and a platform to expand the delivery of high quality care and outcomes to an increased population, and extend our mission of being a force for good in the post-acute sector.”

Cascadia is interested in growing nationally beyond the Pacific Northwest, LaForte told SNN earlier.  

And, as Cascadia Healthcare adds facilities and diversifies its services, it will continue to rely on a decentralized operating model that empowers local facility leaders to make decisions, LaForte said. The company has also invested heavily in leadership development since the pandemic, creating a pipeline of operators to support future growth, he said. 

“We’re also going to grow on a more national scale, and the driver behind that is one of the things that we’ve done over the last three to four years when we came out of Covid. We’ve really developed our leadership training programs successfully, and we’ve brought a lot of people in who want to be part of Cascadia, who fit our model,” LaForte said. 

Cascadia’s field-driven model means that each facility operates as its own small business, he said. 

“We empower the leaders. We call our leaders in each building CEOs; we call our directors of nursing, CNOs. They are running the facility and they are making the decisions. There’s very little corporate decision making,” LaForte said.

The remaining four Avamere properties will be transitioned to subsidiaries of an existing Sabra tenant.

“We are excited for the next chapter of this important portfolio as Cascadia and our existing tenant are committed to continuing Avamere’s legacy of providing high-quality clinical outcomes. Importantly, Cascadia has previous experience successfully taking over operations of non-Sabra Avamere facilities,” Matros said.

Sabra estimates that upon closing, the combined annualized cash rent of this portfolio is expected to be $53 million, a nearly 30% increase compared to the $41 million of cash rent received from Avamere during the trailing-twelve-month period ending March 31, 2026.

Skilled Nursing News’ sister publication, Senior Housing News, reached out to Avamere but did not receive a response by the time of publication.