It isn’t clear what change, if any, the takeover by Healdsburg Mgr LLC means for residents of the 100-bed assisted living facility, which was run by Pacifica Senior Living Management before it entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Around the time Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in March, residents at Healdsburg Senior Living received notice that they needed to sign new management agreements.
A new company, called Healdsburg Mgr LLC, would now be handling day-to-day operations at the 100-bed assisted living facility, the elderly residents were told.
Some people might have welcomed that.
Since Pacifica Senior Living — an umbrella elder care firm related to Pacifica Companies, a San Diego-based global real estate firm — moved into the elder care industry more than a decade ago, it has been trailed by an unusually high rate of complaints by residents and their families, according to a health care impact statement prepared by consultant Christopher Cherney for the California Attorney General in 2022.
Pacifica Senior Living has also been hit with a number of high-profile legal judgments and settlements — including a $2.5 million settlement last year in a case relating to an incident at Healdsburg Senior Living.
But, despite the arrival of Healdsburg Mgr LLC at Healdsburg Senior Living, it’s unclear whether any substantive leadership changes have taken place, in part because of the layers of companies connected to the facility.
In an email to The Press Democrat, Cort Schultz, an attorney for Pacifica Companies wrote “it’s important to clarify that Pacifica Senior Living Management LLC and Healdsburg Senior Living are entirely separate entities. Healdsburg Senior Living is managed by Healdsburg Mgr LLC.”
A deeper look at Healdsburg Mgr LLC, however, reveals that that company didn’t exist until September. In that initial filing with the California Secretary of State’s Office, Carl Knepler is the “organizer.”
Knepler spent 13 years as Pacifica Senior Living’s chief operating officer and managing partner, according to his LinkedIn page.
Knepler now holds those same titles for another newly registered company called Heritage Resource Group. A relative of one Healdsburg Senior Living resident told The Press Democrat that when a representative of the new management company there gave him a business card, it identified her as working for Heritage Resource Group.
That company incorporated in October. Its most recent statement of information, filed with the Secretary of State, lists Knepler as a manager, along with Naresh Kotwani, who is a principal at Pacifica Companies.
Complicated business structures
The layers of ownership and management are emblematic of the complicated business structures that define much of the elder care industry, which is increasingly dominated by large, diversified corporations such as Pacifica Companies and its related entities.
In the case of Healdsburg Senior Living, it appears that one company, Pacifica Senior Living Management, is being shut down in Chapter 7 — a restrictive form of bankruptcy that requires the debtor to close its doors and cease operations — while another has formed to handle similar duties.
When The Press Democrat inquired about the Chapter 7 case earlier this month, multiple representatives of Pacifica’s various entities failed to respond to requests for comment. But five days after the news organization’s story about the case was published, Schultz, the attorney for Pacifica Companies, emailed to point out what he called factual errors.
“Pacifica Senior Living LLC does not own any senior care facilities,” Schultz wrote.
That same day, April 7, Schultz filed a declaration in the Chapter 7 case, laying out similar distinctions.
The declaration stated that Pacifica Senior Living Management provided accounting and financial analytics, legal support, human resource consulting, sales and marketing, purchasing support, and dietary and culinary advice to its senior living homes. It did not provide medical care or housing, and did not own any facilities.
Schultz didn’t respond to a follow-up request to confirm that Pacifica Senior Living Management had handled those duties at Healdsburg Senior Living. But multiple court documents suggest it did.
In the case that resulted in the $2.5 million settlement — brought by the family of Phyllis Johnson — the plaintiffs added Pacifica Senior Living Management to the list of defendants, based on a deposition during which Knepler acknowledged the Pacifica entity had replaced a different manager at the site, Avalon.
In a transcript of that March 2023 deposition, Knepler says of Avalon, “They were a management company, so we were going to manage the community.”
Healdsburg Senior Living Community is also among the “covered facilities” listed in a class action settlement signed by Pacific Senior Living Management LLC, over alleged wage and hours violations.
