Within days of finalizing changes to its ratings criteria for not-for-profit continuing care retirement / life plan communities in an effort to better reflect the risk profile for rated communities, Fitch Ratings on Thursday placed 18 CCRCs “under criteria observation,” or UCO.
According to Fitch, the CCRCs listed as UCO will require additional information and analysis to fully assess the effect of the criteria on the ratings.
“While these ratings may be affected by the criteria changes, not all of the ratings designated as UCO will necessarily change. Placement on the UCO list does not indicate a change in the issuer’s underlying credit profile, nor does it affect existing rating outlooks or rating watch statuses,” the ratings agency said. “Fitch will review all the ratings designated as UCO as soon as practicable, but no later than six months following the date of the criteria release.”
The CCRCs listed UCO include:
- Acts Retirement–Life Communities in Pennsylvania / The Evergreens in New Jersey
- Brookhaven at Lexington Retirement Community in Massachusetts
- Casa de las Campanas in California
- Covenant Living Communities and Services in Illinois
- Evangelical Homes of Michigan
- Front Porch Communities & Services in California
- HumanGood California Obligated Group in California / American Baptist Homes of the West in California
- John Knox Village, Pompano Beach, FL
- Lenbrook Square Foundation in Georgia
- Lifespace Communities in Iowa / Querencia at Barton Creek in Texas
- Mary’s Woods at Marylhurst in Oregon
- Mt. San Antonio Gardens in California
- National Senior Communities Obligated Group in Virginia / Linden Ponds in Massachusetts
- Northcrest Inc. in Iowa
- Riverview Retirement Community in Washington
- Waverly Heights Ltd. in Pennsylvania
- Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge in Virginia and
- Willow Valley Communities in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday, Fitch had estimated that ratings for 12 % of the country’s not-for-profit CCRC could find themselves UCO within five business days of criteria publication, up from the previous estimate of 10%.
