Ensign Group bets on assisted living

The Ensign Group, parent company of a wide portfolio of skilled nursing, rehabilitation, assisted living and hospice care companies, is buying 15 assisted living communities in Wisconsin. Ensign has been operating all 15 facilities since late 2015, with an option to buy. The deal involves nearly 700 beds across the state.

The purchase is a continuation of Ensign’s desire to own more of the real estate within its operating portfolio, according to Ensign's President and CEO Christopher Christensen. Ensign now owns the underlying real estate in 50 of its 209 operations and “is actively seeking and negotiating several other transactions to acquire real estate and to lease both well-performing and struggling skilled nursing, assisted living and other healthcare-related businesses,” Christensen said in a corporate release.

Terms of the cash sale were not made public. The announcement of the sale comes just weeks after the Ensign Group completed the sale of its assets in the urgent care market.

Ensign operates senior care facilities in 14 states, primarily in the mountain and west coast regions.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.