The Blakeford at Green Hills retirement center plans to sell almost $31 million of debt in the coming weeks. Proceeds of the offering will go toward retiring the facility's 1998 series of debt as well as refinancing its loan with Bank of America and funding some capital improvements. In giving the planned debt a BBB rating, Fitch analysts say the center booked 2011 revenues of almost $18 million and posted an adjusted operating margin of 27.9 percent.

Because of a focus on strengthening operations, The Blakeford has generated year-over-year improvement in operating performance over the last three fiscal years despite a difficult operating environment. Operating ratio of 87% in fiscal 2011 is improved from 93.2% in fiscal 2010 and 99.6% in fiscal 2009 and compares favorably to the 'BBB' category median of 97.4%.