Enlivant will increase the size of its portfolio by 40% when it finalizes the acquisitions of 48 senior living communities from multiple unidentified sellers, the company announced Thursday. The total dollar amount of the deals was not disclosed.
The purchases represent 3,084 independent living, assisted living and memory care units across 14 states — Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, the company said. Sixteen of the deals recently closed, and the remaining 32 are expected to close over the next several months. Enlivant then will operate approximately 230 senior living communities with a total of 11,000 apartment units across 27 states.
The new locations were chosen after an analysis of properties located in geographic markets of interest to Enlivant, Jack R. Callison Jr., Enlivant CEO, told McKnight’s Senior Living in an interview at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care fall conference.
“Some of them are a little bit larger than our standard prototype, and many of them have both assisted living and memory care,” he said, adding, “A strategic goal of ours is to increase our exposure to memory care.” Callison said the issue is a passion for him because he had loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease, and he also believes that memory care is an underserved segment and one that enables assisted living residents to age in place in the same senior living community.
The company does not have a growth target, Callison said. “Our goal is to become not the largest operator in the country but become the most trusted, and we want to do that at a thoughtful pace,” he said.
Enlivant recently conducted a pilot program at five communities in Georgia in which the company converted some assisted living units to memory care units. Results are promising — over six months on an entire-building basis, occupancy increased 26%, net operating income increased 135%, and customer and employee satisfaction is “off the charts,” Enlivant Chief Operating Officer Daniel Guill said in a session at the NIC meeting.
“We’re now looking at our existing portfolio, outside of acquisitions, and looking at where we can we continue to thoughtfully increase or convert existing inventory from assisted living to memory care,” Callison said.
In the meantime, he and Guill are visiting each of the new communities three or four weeks before acquisition closing to conduct “town hall” meetings with employees, residents and families. The gatherings are a chance to allay concerns, share the company culture, obtain feedback and suggestions for improvements, and handle transition matters such as new-hire paperwork, Callison said.
Enlivant is buying the properties with global investment firm TPG, which acquired Enlivant in 2013, and TPG Real Estate, its real estate platform. “It takes not only having the right team but also having the right capital partner that shares the same vision in terms of all of this growth, so they’re a very, very important partner in all that we’re doing, and it’s a very harmonious partnership that we’re excited to be growing further,” Callison said.
