Cedar Health scoops up Fort Lauderdale assisted living facility for $39M

Wickshire sold property for more than double its purchase price a year ago

2855 West Commercial Boulevard
2855 West Commercial Boulevard (Loopnet, Getty)

Cedar Health Group beefed up its portfolio of assisted living facilities in South Florida.

Cedar Health paid $39 million for the assisted living facility at 2855 West Commercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. The seller is Brentwood, Tennessee-based Wickshire Senior Living, according to records. The buyer took out a $38.1 million loan from Ocean Bank.

Wickshire sold the facility for 125 percent more than its $17.3 million purchase price a year ago.

The 293-unit property has been rechristened Oasis Living Quarters from its previous name, Atria Willow Wood. It also offers memory care services, Oasis’ website shows. The property spans 18 acres and backs up to two lakes. Oasis was completed in 1988 and totals roughly 304,000 square feet, property records show.

The most recent sale breaks down to about $133,000 per unit.

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Founded in 2019, Cedar is a privately held asset management firm that focuses on health care, including long-term acute care hospitals, intensive specialty hospitals and outpatient program providers, according to its website. Mark Tress, Stephen Werdiger and Chaim Rottenberg started Cedar. It is based in Lakewood, N.J.

South Florida, much like the rest of the state, is a retirement haven, which has made for a strong investment sales market for assisted living facilities, as well as for nursing homes and other facilities that allow for independent or medically assisted living.

This month, nursing home investors Bent Philipson and Andrew Bronfeld paid $43.2 million for Signature HealthCare Center of Waterford at 8333 West Okeechobee Road in Hialeah Gardens.

Also, Montreal-based Comprehensive Care Capital bought Banyan Place at 2950 Northwest Fifth Avenue in Boca Raton and a nearby residential building for a combined $20.5 million in April.

That deal came shortly after Hector Fernandez, who heads Miami-based Reign Senior Residences, paid $16 million for Coral Plaza by RSR, an assisted living facility at 5850 Margate Boulevard in Margate.