Carmichael, CA-based provider Eskaton is selling its three stand-alone skilled nursing facilities for $35.6 million as part of a plan to “expand and enhance” the company’s offerings in independent living, assisted living, memory care and home care.
The new owner of the facilities — the 99-bed Eskaton Care Center Manzanita in Carmichael, CA; 148-bed Eskaton Care Center Greenhaven in Sacramento, CA; and the 149-bed Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks in Fair Oaks, CA — will be Roseville, CA-based Cypress Healthcare Group, with IEP as a capital partner. Cypress already operates nine SNFs in the area.
“We have decided, through intense evaluation, that it is time to reposition Eskaton for the coming decade,” Eskaton CEO Todd Murch said in a statement. “The sale of our stand-alone skilled nursing communities will allow us to strengthen our residential living, affordable housing and home-based services, plus enable expansion across Northern California through management or affiliation with existing non-profit residential living providers.”
The parties entered into a purchase agreement March 23, according to the California attorney general’s office. The AG must approve the transition process, which Eskaton expects to take most of the year to complete. The nonprofit company, which has been in business for 55 years, said that employees were notified of the pending sale in mid-January.
The three facilities have an average star rating of 4.7 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and have been declining in occupancy since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the AG’s office. “Fair Oaks, Greenhaven and Manzanita maintained a 90% occupancy rate from 2017-2019. However, for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2022, consolidated occupancy for the three facilities was at 70%,” a document from the office stated.
“This action is in the best interest of the skilled nursing buildings, their employees and their patients and will strengthen Eskaton and our mission to serve older adults throughout Northern California,” Murch said.
Eskaton was ranked as the 48th largest not-for-profit multi-site senior living and care organizations in the United States in the 2022 LeadingAge Ziegler 200 list based on total units. It ranked 25th based on assisted living units, 53rd for nursing care beds and 93rd for independent living units.
