Beaver Dam nursing home changes hands in $1.5M deal

Feb. 28—A Beaver Dam nursing home is trading hands in a $1.5 million deal — a fraction of what it sold for 17 years ago.

Cuarzo Healthcare Capital, formerly Golden Living, owned 410 Roedl Court through an affiliate. It initially purchased the property in 2006 for nearly $6 million, selling it to 121 Watertown Realty in January for $1,480,000. The parcel changed hands again in February to 410 Beaver Dam Realty, which is composed of the same members as Watertown Realty. Both companies are two months old.

The predecessor of Cuarzo and Golden Living — Beverly Enterprises — was once the largest nursing home chains in the United States.

The Beaver Dam Health Care Center, run by Bedrock Healthcare, confirmed that the skilled care nursing facility will remain in the space.

"It really doesn't affect anything in our day-to-day operations," Bedrock's Chief of Operations Kenneth Nichols said. "Now we just have a company that handles the property assets."

The Beaver Dam nursing facility and six other properties throughout Wisconsin were put through receivership in 2019 after Cuarzo's former tenant, Dycora Transitional Health and Living Center, defaulted on all of its leases. Attorney Michael S. Polsky was appointed by the Milwaukee Circuit Court as the legal receiver.

He selected another affiliate of Cuarzo, Menominee River LLC, as a temporary operator since the company previously owned the facilities before leasing them to Dycora. Bedrock formally took over operations six months later.

Receivership is a court proceeding similar to bankruptcy that allows employees to continue to be paid and operations to continue, with the goal of giving a company time to get back on its feet.

Polsky stated in a press release at the time that the process could end in new ownership of the facility.

Cuarzo's other Wisconsin properties also seem to be up for grabs; 121 Watertown Realty purchased the real estate trust's nursing facility in Abbotsford for $840,000. Like the Beaver Dam Health Care Center, it was subsequently sold to another LLC with the same members.

Nichols couldn't comment on the relatively low sale prices of the properties Bedrock operates, but noted that the healthcare company will continue to look at opportunities to expand its presence in Wisconsin. Before the receivership, Bedrock's centers were contained to Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.

"When we first started operations, the facilities had some reputation issues, some vendor issues. We cleaned that up quickly," Nichols said. "When COVID hit, things got challenging but we've since stabilized."

He added that Bedrock was tasked with filling several senior staff and leadership positions, which it has since accomplished at nearly every property including the Beaver Dam Health Care Center.

"We take a different approach to things, but we'd rather do it ourselves then have another interim," Nichols concluded.

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