Montclair Retirement Community sells to Dallas firm

Dallas-based Capital Senior Living Corp. (NYSE: CSU) on Dec. 20 purchased The Montclair Retirement Community, adding a second Springfield property to its holdings of 100 retirement communities nationwide.

The publicly traded company opened The Waterford at Iron Bridge in 2001, said Kevin Wilbur, Capital Senior Living’s regional operations manager. Wilbur said Maryland-based Brightview Co./The Shelter Group listed The Montclair for sale in the fall.

Capital Senior Living purchased the 158-apartment Montclair, 1000 E. Montclair St., along with a retirement community in Ohio, for $32.8 million, according to a company news release.

“The Montclair had the prestige of being the 100th property at Capital,” Wilbur said, noting no personnel changes are planned for The Montclair’s 46 employees, including Executive Director Barbara Ray, who has worked at The Montclair since its opening in 1988. “There were several suitors that looked at it. They felt that Capital and Shelter’s intentions for employees were very similar.”

The independent living facility provides packages with meals, housekeeping, transportation and activities, and it leases office space to Oxford HealthCare, though Wilbur said residents can receive nursing care from any home health agency.

Wilbur said Capital Senior Living’s business plan targets geographical clusters of properties. The company operates a retirement community in St. Louis, another in Wichita, Kan., and six near Omaha, Neb., said Wilbur, who opened The Waterford, 1131 E. Lakewood St., but now works out of Capital Senior Living’s Omaha office.

“When we purchase properties, we’re buying your operations. Typically, we look for well run properties, and we change very little,” he added. “We don’t buy fixer-uppers.”

Across the Missouri and Ohio properties, average monthly rents are $2,900 and average occupancy is 92 percent, the release said.

The two acquisitions are expected to increase Capital Senior Living’s revenues by more than $9 million annually and create additional cash from facility operations of $1.8 million, or 7 cents per share, according to the release. The company financed the deals with $24.6 million of 10-year fixed-rate debt at a blended interest rate of 4.4 percent.

Capital Senior Living this year has spent $181.3 million in acquiring 17 communities, which are expected to generate 18 percent cash-on-cash return on invested capital in the first 12 months of ownership, according to the release.