Health care moguls buy Hialeah Gardens nursing home for $43M

A pair of nursing home investors scooped up a Hialeah Gardens facility for $43.2 million.

Bent Philipson and Andrew Bronfeld bought Signature HealthCare Center of Waterford at 8333 West Okeechobee Road from an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Arba Group, records show.

The deal for the 214-unit facility breaks down to roughly $202,000 per unit.

Philipson has invested in South Florida facilities in the past. He is the founder of Long Island-based Philosophy Care Centers, a skilled nursing homes consultant servicing New York and New Jersey, according to LinkedIn accounts for Philipson and Philosophy Care. Bronfeld’s LinkedIn lists him as the Miami-based regional director for elder care provider Ventura Services.

Bronfeld, through an affiliate, bought a 20 percent stake in the Hialeah Gardens facility. Philipson used five entities to purchase the property, with each of his affiliates buying from a 2 percent to 39 percent stake in the nursing home, records show. A seventh entity that acquired a 0.2 percent stake is led by Naomi Tessler of Brooklyn.

The buyers assumed a $19.5 million mortgage on the property from the seller and bumped up the amount to $59.8 million. The financing was reassigned to VNB New York.

The three-story building was completed in 1986 on an almost 2-acre site overlooking a lake, according to property records.

Arba Group, led by Ira Smedra and Jacob Wintner, had paid $29.3 million for the facility in 2019, meaning it flipped it for a 47 percent gain in three years.

South Florida, as well as the rest of the state, have historically been retirement meccas, with nursing homes a coveted investment.

Philipson has been betting heavily on the asset class.

Late last year, he bought a stake in Claridge House at 13900 Northeast Third Court near North Miami, and Regents Park at Aventura at 18905 Northeast 25th Avenue. Philipson bought the properties for a combined $33.4 million, in partnership with Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based CareRite Centers.

In 2020, Philipson paid $24 million for North Dade Nursing And Rehab Center at 1207 and 1235 Northeast 135th Street in North Miami. That topped off his two-year splurge on six nursing homes for a combined $100 million.
Included in that spree was his $19.8 million purchase of South Dade Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at 17475 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay, and Golden Glades Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at 220 Sierra Drive in Miami.

For its part, CareRite also beefed up its portfolio last year, paying $35 million for Coral Reef Subacute Care Center at 9869 Southwest 152nd Street in an unincorporated area of south Miami-Dade County.