BEAUMONT, Texas — Buckner Retirement Services has named David Ummel as the new executive director of Calder Woods, a seniors housing community in Beaumont. Ummel joins Buckner Retirement Services, the operator of Calder Woods, after 13 years working for Buckner Children and Family Services and Buckner church/ministry engagement. This position marks Ummel’s first job in the senior living industry. Calder Woods’ previous executive director, Shane Gabis, stepped down in June 2021 to attend to family matters. Ummel’s roles with Buckner Children and Family Services also included senior executive director for …
ATLANTA — Seniors housing operators have been grappling the past 18 months with how to maintain their properties and keep occupancy high while also protecting their staff and residents, who are the most vulnerable population for infections and death from the COVID-19 outbreak. With the rise of the Delta variant in recent weeks, owners and operators are having to make tough decisions to care for their residents, although now they have built some muscle memory on how to operate effectively amid the pandemic. “We are better at dealing with COVID-19 …
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — LTC Properties Inc. (NYSE: LTC), a Westlake Village-based real estate investment trust that primarily invests in seniors housing and health care properties, has unveiled plans to transfer 11 skilled nursing facilities in Texas to a new operator. The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division approved a settlement agreement between current operators Senior Care Centers LLC and Abri Health Services LLC, which have declared bankruptcy, and LTC. Under the agreement, LTC will pay the bankrupt entities $3.3 million in order to …
CARLSBAD, Calif. — Integral Senior Living (ISL), a Carlsbad-based operator, has taken over management of six senior living communities in Indiana and Michigan. The company also named Adam Parton as regional vice president of operations and Brandy Ross as regional director of sales and management. Parton joins the ISL team with a decade of experience in senior living operations management, particularly in the Midwest. He is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in three states. Ross is an industry veteran with years of experience growing and managing senior living communities across …
SEBASTIAN, Fla. — Watercrest Senior Living Group has promoted James Brassard to executive director of Pelican Landing Assisted Living and Memory Care in Sebastian. The former executive director, Michelle Miller, was recently promoted to regional director of clinical operations. Brassard joined the Watercrest family in 2019 as director of sales at Palm Bay Memory Care, and was later promoted to executive director there. Brassard has extensive expertise in senior living start-ups and turn-around communities. A recipient of the FALA Sales and Marketing Director of the Year award, he has multi-site …
ASHLAND CITY, Tenn., and KENNESAW, Ga. — Veritas Senior Living, an operator based in Tennessee, has added Vantage Pointe Village in Ashland City and Gaines Park Senior Living in Kennesaw into its portfolio. The new communities will bring Veritas’s total number of communities to six. The operator has added three communities in 2021 so far. “We’re experiencing tremendous and fast-paced growth despite our careful navigation of COVID,” says Matthew Fox, Veritas founder and CEO.
EAST AMHERST, N.Y. — Sunshine Retirement Living has hired Marion “Mimi” Piciullo as the new executive director of Juniper Glen Assisted Living and Memory Care in the Buffalo suburb of East Amherst. Piciullo is responsible for all day-to-day management and operations of the community, including financials, marketing, government and community relations. She will also oversee all health and safety programs, including new heightened procedures and protocols to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 infection, which includes a pioneering technology called Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization that eliminates 99.4 percent of the SARS-COVID-2 virus that …
ATLANTA — Even before the pandemic struck the United States in early 2020, rising labor costs were putting downward pressure on margins for seniors housing owners and operators. The public health and economic crises stemming from COVID-19 have only amplified the problem, say seniors housing professionals. In an industry where residents overwhelmingly belong to one of the most COVID-19-susceptible demographics, seniors housing operators are now wrestling with the question of whether to require staffers to get vaccinated. At the same time, they are battling widespread wage increases brought on by …
ATLANTA — Isaakson Living has hired Brandon O’Ree as the new executive director of The Terraces at Peachtree Hills Place, an assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and short-term rehabilitation community in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood. O’Ree will be responsible for daily operations, including management, staffing and regulatory compliance of the 85-unit community. O’Ree has previously led teams at continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) and senior healthcare facilities throughout the Southeast, including recently directing the daily operations for three properties encompassing 111 independent living apartments, 131 assisted living apartments and …
Are owners replacing third-party operators at a faster rate than in the past and, if so, what’s driving the trend? Consider multiple factors By Wendy Nowokunski Co-Founder, President Northbridge Companies There has been an uptick in replacing third-party management companies. The questions that need to be asked are: Why and at what cost? Oftentimes, investors and owners attribute non-performance of an asset or assets solely to the operator without asking critical questions. Is it a market issue, the product itself, the labor market, or does the on-site management need …