Senior living and care real estate investment trust Strawberry Fields REIT, based in South Bend, IN, plans to expand its portfolio with a $102 million purchase of 18 skilled nursing facilities and five assisted living communities in Indiana.
The REIT said it expects to close the transaction in August, funded via the company’s current working capital and money provided by a third-party lender.
The firm already owns properties in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
The properties the REIT plans to purchase currently are leased under a master lease agreement to a group of tenants affiliated with two of the company’s directors, Moishe Gubin and Michael Blisko.
Strawberry Fields REIT is a newcomer to the Nasdaq Capital Market, having just gone public in February. The REIT filed for a Nasdaq direct listing in March 2022.
Gubin previously told the McKnight’s Business Daily that he and Blisko bought their first skilled nursing property in 2003 through a predecessor company. That company eventually became the Strawberry Fields REIT in 2015, he said. Both men come from a background of working in skilled nursing.
The firm got its name from a company-wide contest, Gubin said. “Strawberry Fields” won because of the association with the Beatles song of the same name. With a client base made up of baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — it seemed fitting to tie the REIT’s name to a band that the oldest members especially would identif
