Ignite Medical Resorts will expand its footprint in Texas through a $12.7 million loan from Westlake Village, CA-based real estate investment trust LTC Properties that will enable the operator to purchase a skilled nursing and assisted living campus in Katy, TX, as part of an unconsolidated joint venture with the REIT.
Ignite already operates 22 boutique-style properties in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, seven that are part of the LTC portfolio as of Dec. 31.
The company specializes in short-term rehabilitation and nursing care conducted in a concierge-like environment the company calls LuxeRehab. Services include clinical programming for orthopedics, stroke, cardiac and respiratory care. Its therapists are all employed in-house.
“We are very pleased to assist our long-term partner, Ignite, with the purchase of this property, building on the strong relationship we have had with them since 2019. We look forward to continued growth with them,” LTC Chairman and CEO Wendy Simpson said in a press release. “We are focused on providing flexible financing, including through shorter-term vehicles, that provides growth capital for our operators, while also generating meaningful returns for LTC and our shareholders.”
The five-year loan is interest-only at a current rate of 9.15%; $800,000 will be used for capital expenses to improve the campus. LTC said it expects that this spending will generate approximately $884,000 of revenue this year.
The former VibraLife of Katy now will be known as Ignite Medical Resort Katy and will be Ignite’s fifth property in Texas. The campus was built in 2017 and includes 48 skilled nursing rooms and 30 assisted living units.
The Chicago-based operator first expanded its long-term care and post-acute offerings into the Lone Star State two years ago with the addition of four former Bridgemoor Transitional Care facilities.
“Our goal is to help our guests quickly get their spark back and return home to their loved ones,” Tim Fields, Ignite’s CEO and co-founder, said in a press release issued this week. “We look forward to bringing our enhanced environment of engaged employee culture, a hospitality-centered focus and superior rehabilitative nursing and therapy care to Katy, Texas.”
This past fall, Ignite expanded into its seventh state when it began operating two Northwest Indiana SNFs owned by Sabra Health Care REIT. Sabra first worked with Ignite on a three-building deal in Oklahoma in January 2020 and later tacked on an assisted living community to that package. The REIT’s portfolio as of Dec. 31 included five Ignite Medical Reports and the Luxe Life Norman senior living and memory care community in Norman, OK, where one of the medical resorts is located.
