A company that owns numerous assisted living homes in eastern Maine is involved in multiple liens and debt- or contract-related court cases here and in Texas, where it is based.
Magnolia Assisted Living and other LLCs associated with it own at least five Maine assisted living homes, mainly in Hancock and Waldo counties. Two lawsuits it faces in Maine are over alleged unpaid debts that together total more than $900,000, while it also faces multiple liens each worth more than $5,000.
Public records show a pattern of liens against its properties in Maine in the last several years, and include an ongoing Waldo County court case alleging it owes a contractor $400,000, and another saying the company has not paid any of the hundreds of thousands it owes the former owner of Tall Pines, the Belfast facility it recently purchased.
Texas court records show multiple other cases against Magnolia and its officials, largely around alleged breaches of contract and unpaid debts.
The records raise questions about the stability of some of the remaining assisted living facilities in a region of Maine that has seen its resources for aging people, and access to healthcare in general, contract significantly since the pandemic. An attorney representing the company said it is working through operating challenges here.
In addition to various LLCs, court documents also often name founders Christa Means and Edward Sedacca as defendants.
Sedacca hasn’t been involved in management since early 2025, according to Randy Creswell, a Portland attorney representing Means in Maine. Creswell couldn’t comment on the company’s overall stability without full knowledge of its Texas operations, he said, but its Maine business is stable.
“It’s completely solid in terms of how it’s operating,” he said, adding that Magnolia is continuing to employ people and provide services to communities that need them, though “it has had some hiccups, for sure.”
The company owned nine facilities in Maine in 2023, according to Bangor Daily News reports when it acquired the former Tall Pines facility in Belfast. Creswell said it now owns up to six.
Its website also lists the Magnolia Assisted Living Care Home in Ellsworth, Frankfort Assisted Living in Frankfort and Magnolia Assisted Living Pittsfield. Another LLC associated with the company owns the Jed Prouty residential care home in Bucksport.
Liens currently active against its Maine properties are relatively small, according to deed registry filings: a $6,610 sewer lien from the city of Ellsworth, a $6,714 sewer lien in Belfast that’s gone unpaid for more than a year and another in Bucksport for $8,336.
Filings also show a pattern of larger liens, now paid off, across properties beginning around 2024. Last year, Magnolia faced two other liens from Maine Revenue Services totalling more than $160,000 between two LLCs associated with properties here. It also paid close to $100,000 in liens last year from two companies for work on its Frankfort facility.
In May, California-based supplier Valencia Pipe Company filed an ongoing six-count complaint in Waldo County Superior Court against Magnolia, associated LLCs and parties alleging a breach of contract among other issues. Documents in the county’s registry of deeds show the court found the company would likely recover $400,000 on two claims, but do not provide specifics about the dispute.
Creswell said Magnolia does not owe the company any money, adding that Sedacca is involved with Valencia Pipe, but declined to comment further ahead of a filing he planned to make Thursday.
Magnolia, Means and Sedacca were also sued in district court in January 2025 by the former owners of the Tall Pines facility they purchased in Belfast, alleging the company had defaulted on a $558,305 promissory note from 2024 as part of seller financing.
In February, the former owners said in a court filing that Magnolia had not made any payment toward the $525,784 it owes.
Creswell was not part of that case, but said the two companies have a “solid relationship” outside of litigation and are working together to resolve it.
Sedacca and Means are also named in more than half a dozen recent debt- and contract-related lawsuits centered on facilities in Texas. Some of those lawsuits have since been dismissed.
One filed in federal court in April around a Texas facility alleged Magnolia was defaulting on a $2.75 million loan while facing three liens on the property that totaled about $115,000. The initial complaint said the property manager was also relying on another $199,000 in loans from an affiliate of the plaintiff to make payroll and critical expenses, but still wasn’t paying employees.
Means was seeking a line of credit with a new bank at the time, according to that filing. The case was dismissed the following day.
Creswell added the amounts in dispute are not necessarily significant for a company with the volume of business that Magnolia does.
“The goal is to keep all these facilities open,” he said Thursday.
