The Ensign Group expands in Utah, buys seven Stonehenge facilities

The Ensign Group Inc. of San Juan Capistrano, California, has expanded its presence in Utah with the acquisition of seven skilled nursing facilities operating under the Stonehenge brand. 

The Ensign Group operates in 17 states — mostly in the West, Southwest and Southeast — in the skilled nursing and senior living services industry; physical, occupational and speech therapies; other rehabilitative and health care services; and real estate investment. 

Included in the recent acquisition are Stonehenge of American Fork, a 90-bed skilled nursing facility; Stonehenge of Cedar City, a 50-bed facility; Stonehenge of Ogden, a 52-bed facility located in Washington Terrace; Stonehenge of Orem, a 34-bed facility; Stonehenge of Richfield, a 30-bed center; Stonehenge of South Jordan, a 32-bed facility; and Stonehenge of Springville, a 50-bed facility.

While the skilled nursing operations will be run by Ensign, the real estate was acquired by subsidiaries of Standard Bearer Healthcare REIT Inc., Ensign’s captive real estate company.

“We have admired Stonehenge for many years and are honored to continue their legacy as one of the top providers in the state of Utah,” said Barry Port, Ensign’s CEO. “This strategic acquisition adds high-quality, newer-constructed properties to our existing footprint in a very important state for us. The locations are a perfect fit with our existing clusters and introduce us into a few new markets. We are also thrilled to add these assets to Standard Bearer’s growing real estate portfolio.”

“We are so excited to work with the staff, residents and the families at each of these locations,” said Steve Farnsworth, president of Milestone Healthcare LLC, Ensign’s Utah-based subsidiary. “We are confident that there are many things we can learn from the amazing group of caregivers already present in these operations. We look forward to combining our deep bench of talented resources with the amazing talent in these operations and will strive to provide top-notch services to each of these communities for decades to come.”

In a separate transaction on the same day, Ensign announced it acquired the operations of The Health Center of Eastview, a 90-bed skilled nursing facility located in Birmingham, Alabama.

These acquisitions bring Ensign’s portfolio to 369 health care operations, including 47 senior living operations. Ensign subsidiaries, including Standard Bearer, own 155 real estate assets. Port added that Ensign is actively seeking opportunities to acquire real estate and to lease both well-performing and struggling skilled nursing, senior living and other health care-related businesses throughout the United States.