Senior care landlord Sabra Health Care is trimming back the handful of properties it plans to sell out from under a troubled tenant, officials announced Sunday.
Last month, the Irvine, CA, company had announced plans to sell a collection of 36 skilled nursing and two assisted living facilities for $385 million, days after Dallas-based Senior Care Centers filed for bankruptcy. Now, Sabra says it’s paring back that sale number to 28 centers, while holding onto 10 of them. The amended sale price is $282.5 million.
The real estate investment trust said it will lease the other 10 facilities to one or more new operators, with hopes of selling them once they had “stabilized.” Officials have said previously that they’ve been anxious to get out of the state of Texas and its troubling reimbursement climate.
“The revised terms of the Senior Care Centers facilities sale represent a good outcome for Sabra,” CEO Rick Matros said in a statement. “Upon completion, we will have achieved each of our stated objectives in connection with this transaction by wrapping up our association with a troubled operator and reducing our geographic concentration in a challenging state.”
Sabra said it hopes to complete the sale and operator transition by April 1.
Meanwhile, the company said it has also completed the previously announced sale of nine more facilities, leased by SNF giant Genesis for $37.1 million. Sabra had entered into an agreement to sell three more Genesis-leased properties, but those deals have been held up by the government shutdown. They’re expected to fetch gross proceeds of $33.2 million.Sabra plans to hold onto eight more Genesis facilities, officials added.
Senior Care Centers filed for bankruptcy in December, citing ballooning rent payments as a reason. Sabra subsequently sued its largest tenant later that month, asking a judge to force SCC to surrender those properties because the bankruptcy was jeopardizing their sale.
