Must-Read News: Columbia Pacific’s $2 Billion Senior Housing Play

Happy Monday, Senior Housing News readers! 

Here are several stories you simply must read before jumping head on into this week:

Columbia Pacific Advisors, founded in part by Emeritus Co-founder Dan Baty, moved to purchase the 79-property portfolio of Vancouver, Washington-based Hawthorn Retirement Group.

Columbia Pacific Advisors’ planned acquisition of Hawthorn Retirement likely commanded a $2 billion price tag—and it may be an indication of what’s to come for Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD).

Seeking financing insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) comes with requirements that assisted living providers must be vigilant about meeting, as demonstrated by a recent audit report of one California assisted living community from the HUD Office of Inspector General.

A shareholder of New Senior Investment Group (NYSE: SNR) is alleging that some of the company’s executives and board members unfairly used a $640 million acquisition of Holiday Retirement properties to line their own pockets at the expense of the company’s investors.

A concept based on a “dementia village” in The Netherlands will soon become a reality in the U.S. as a way to incorporate on-site reminiscence therapy into daily care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Also in the News 

Virginia United Methodist Homes, Inc. Becomes “Pinnacle Living”—Richmond, Virginia-based Virginia United Methodist Homes, Inc., changed its name to “Pinnacle Living,” effective June 19.

Argentum Reviewing Senate Healthcare Draft Legislation—National senior living organization Argentum “is carefully reviewing the Senate’s discussion draft proposal released Thursday designed to overhaul the current Affordable Care Act,” according to a statement made Thursday. 

The organization supports language in the draft legislation that gets rid of the employer mandate, as well as keeps tax credits to help low income people buy health insurance by basing the credits not on age, but on geography and income. All the while, the Senate draft still contains language from the House bill that enables insurers to charge older adults five times more than younger individuals, Argentum notes. 

‘Badass’ Seniors Find A Home At Southside Knockout Training Center—A program on the south side of Chicago offers high-intensity, 30-minute workouts for seniors 55 years old and older. “It makes people in this population feel like a badass,” Southside Knockout Training Center co-owner Katie Harney said of the older adults who use the gym.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson