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Long-term care developers are itching to build, imploring lenders to "show us the money"
Like a post-acute resident in a skilled nursing facility, the health or the U.S. economy can be summed up in a single word: fragile. The recovery is definitely underway, but it's touch and go, according to the pundits and prognosricacors who analyze every economic hid icator, from gross domestic product and housing starts, to employment rates and foreclosure statistics.
To the 1, SOO-plus attendees at this past September's National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry (NIC) conference in Chicago - the networking and deal-making event for long-term care owners, developers, brokers, and bankers - the slightest sign of economic recovery offered a beacon of light at the endot a long, dark runnel. Developers and owners, in particular, have been hammered in recent years by declining occupancies, nonexistent credit, and relentlessly dismal news.
NIC President - and industry cheerleader - Bob Kramer sums up the mood among attendees as "cautiously optimistic," despite having weathered "some of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression." But unless you're a developer with a proven track record, a spotless credit history, and a healthy relationship with your banker, your chances of securing funding for that next CCRC or assisted living project are pretty slim, at least tor the near term.
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