What Is Happening? What Will Happen?

On December 19, 2007, Herbert J. Sims closed a $457,075,000 financing for a start-up CCRC on behalf of Hebrew SeniorLife. This is the largest CCRC ever underwritten and structured exclusively with bank financing.

In today’s market, the size of this deal would prevent it from being done due to a number of factors that have occurred over the past 18 months.

An Optimistic Article

Since September 15, 2008, the date of Lehman Brother’s historic bankruptcy filing, the tax-exempt bond market has experienced a virtual standstill in the issuance of non-rated and low investment grade tax-exempt bonds. In the nearly eight months that followed, only a handful of fixed-rate tax-exempt bond offerings for senior living and long-term care providers has closed, providing the market with precious little new issue pricing by which to evaluate the move in market yields for senior living bonds. Other information, however, has been available, and the signs today are the most positive they have been since last summer.

Sims is pleased to report that our client, Lenbrook, an Atlanta-based Continuing Care Retirement Community, received the 2009 Gold Award for the Best CCRC Common Area. This award was featured in the 2009 Best of 50+ Housing Awards sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).The Best of 50+ Housing Awards program recognizes excellence in building, design, and marketing of senior housing. The project team involved in Lenbrook’s common area design included Interior Design Associates, Inc., Spectrum Marketing, Inc. as the developer, and THW Design as architect.

In late 2005, Sims was engaged to underwrite Lenbrook’s expansion, consisting of a 24-story tower with 130 luxury apartments, a 60 bed health center, and an array of new common spaces. Additionally, Lenbrook also refinanced $20.1 million of prior debt. The entire expansion/refinancing bond issue totaled $172.75 million.

Read more about this unique distinction...