Sonida Senior Living, with foundation stabilized, embarks on new chapter highlighted by strategic growth

After shoring up the company’s business foundation, Sonida Senior Living is embarking on a new chapter focused on operational efficiency and strategic growth initiatives, according to executives during a first-quarter earnings call on Monday. The Dallas-based company marked an important milestone in the first quarter following a period of “transformational expansion,” President and CEO Brandon Ribar said. Ribar said that during phase 1 (survival) and phase 2 (stabilization), the company was focused on strengthening the foundation of the business, stabilizing operations, repairing and fortifying the balance sheet, upgrading portfolio quality, and investing in operating capabilities to compete at scale. He called current phase, phase 3, the “compounding” phase and said it would be defined by sustaining operational momentum and employing capital. “Performance of the company continues to trend positively, supported by our constructive early momentum in 2026,” Ribar said. “Leveraging that stable operating foundation, we are heavily focused on a smooth integration of recently added communities into the Sonida platform and unlocking a defined set of unmodeled synergies across our cost structure and operating model.” Initiatives spanning asset management and community-level operations, he said, will support margin expansion and cash flow growth over time. The company also is reinforcing performance through incentive structures tied to community-level outcomes, and operational support to sustain results. During the quarter, the company completed the previously announced $1.8 billion merger with CNL Healthcare Properties, creating a larger, more complex portfolio. May 4, the company completed the first operational transition of CNL properties following the acquisition, bringing six communities from two third-party operators onto the Sonida platform May 4. Ribar said the company expects to transition another 11 communities from four third-party operators this summer. With the merger complete, Sonida now has rolled out the Sonida Performance Insight Navigator, or SPIN, a technology infrastructure that integrates resident care data, workforce information and operational metrics to give community leaders real-time insights into resident care needs. The company also introduced a refined capital allocation framework that establishes its approach to evaluating and deploying capital during the next phase of growth. “With an operational foundation firmly in place, a scaled and integrated platform, and a sector backdrop that we believe is increasingly favorable, we are focused on deliberately compounding value over time and delivering durable long-term returns for our shareholders,” Ribar said. First-quarter performance In the first quarter, Ribar said, the portfolio delivered year-over-year growth across its same-store communities, highlighted by continued occupancy expansion, sustained pricing power, and net opening income margin improvement. On a same-store basis, weighted average occupancy increased 220 basis points year over year to 87.2%. NOI increased 14% year over year, and NOI margins expanded to 31.2%. Total SHOP NOI grew 11.3%, whereas weighted average occupancy increased 100 basis points year over year to 85.7%. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Detz said that the company continued to see strong pricing fundamentals across the portfolio, as resident lease renewal rates averaged 6.5% in the first quarter. “We are encouraged by the momentum we are carrying into 2026 and confident in the durability of the operating trends taking shape across the portfolio,” Ribar said.