GRAND RAPIDS, CHELSEA and DEXTER, Mich. — Ziegler has closed $47.1 million in bond financing for United Methodist Retirement Communities (UMRC) and Porter Hills Presbyterian Village.
UMRC is a nonprofit operators of a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Chelsea and independent living cottages in Dexter, with a combined total of 471 units. Porter Hills Presbyterian Village operates three CCRCs throughout the Grand Rapids metropolitan area with a combined total of 569 units at the three facilities.
UMRC and Porter Hills entered into an affiliation agreement in early 2019, but did not initially co-obligate debt. UMRC provided credit support to Porter Hills and recognized that Porter Hills is in need of a substantial repositioning of two of its key campuses.
In late 2019, Ziegler and Porter Hills began discussions regarding a non-rated refinancing of its existing bank debt to capitalize on the low fixed interest rate environment as a prelude to its future repositioning. Partially through the documentation process, the COVID-19 pandemic paused the financing. As the fixed income credit markets began to re-open in the summer of 2020, UMRC and Porter Hills re-evaluated the benefits of co-obligation for the 2020 financing and decided to embark on this path.