MOBs’ Transaction Volume Slows In Q2 2022 But It’s Hardly a Hindrance

/in , /by

A slight slip in medical office transactions in Q2 2022 compared to Q2 2021 levels is not indicative of the continued interest and investment in medical office real estate.

In 2022, according to Q2 Medical Office Market Update from Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), medical office buildings and ambulatory surgical centers will continue to emerge as the “most attractive assets” within the industry.

“Demand for outpatient clinics continues to increase due to advancements in medical technologies, patient preferences, and financial incentives,” according to BGL’s report. “In search of a stable investment option, we predict more institutional and retail investors will direct capital toward the medical office market for the remainder of 2022.”

Christopher Cumella, co-founder, Cypress West Partners, tells GlobeSt.com that capital markets have paused with the uncertainty in the market, particularly in terms of debt.

“As long as that remains uncertain transactions will be slower,” Cumella said. “Especially when coming off records years it will feel even slower. The Fed’s monetary policy is creating a bid-ask spread between buyers and sellers, which might need some time to close that gap.”

A ‘Red-Hot’ Past Decade

Michael Dettling, Principal, Healthcare Real Estate Services, Avison Young, tells GlobeSt.com that the medical office market has been red-hot for both institutional and private investors for the past decade. Investors are drawn to the steady performance of medical offices with low vacancy, strong tenant credit, long lease terms and low tenant turnover resulting in high property valuations.

“Medical office sales slowed a bit in Q2 2022 with the rise in interest rates and following a torrid end of 2021 which likely pulled some sales forward resulting in a weakened first half of 2022,” said Dettling.

Dettling said another factor for the strong sales late in 2021 was the pent-up demand for deployment of capital following the weak COVID-period sales.

“With medical office values remaining high and cap rates compressed, sales will moderate for the next 12 months as investors monitor the economy and rate movement,” Dettling said.

Medical Office ‘Proven’ Resilient

Mitch Creem, Principal at GreenRock, tells GlobeSt.com that investors have always seen medical office buildings as a haven during uncertain financial times, primarily due to their historically proven resiliency during market downturns.

“There are many medical office buildings today still owned by physician groups or syndications looking for capital partners to help finance property upgrades and modernization,” Creem said. “In many cases, physicians are eager to monetize their real estate equity holdings to provide dividends to those groups or provide funds for succession planning and retirements. Similarly, many U.S. hospitals own medical office buildings on or near their campuses, but those assets are in need of major improvements to attract and retain physicians and patients. Partnering with real estate investment trusts and funds to obtain capital for those updates is crucial today given declining hospital profits and cash flows.”

Creem said, additionally, these MOBs will remain desirable investments in light of the continuing growing aged population and a shift of medical care toward lower-cost outpatient settings.

Average Price Per Square Foot Increased

BGL reported that medical office properties accounted for 22.8% of Q2 2022 office transactions—down 3.1% from the same quarter last year.

Year-over-year transaction volume dropped to $2.94 billion from $3.28 billion, a 10.4% decrease. There was a 20% increase in the average price per square foot ($356) from a year ago.

Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs), private equity, and institutional investors continue to raise and deploy sizable capital into the commercial healthcare real estate industry space.

Residents Seek Services ‘Closer to Home’

CommercialEdge’s manager Doug Ressler tells GlobeSt.com, that according to Yardi’s most recent data, more than 16 million square feet of properties that include some types of medical offices are currently under construction.

“Furthermore, as the U.S. population is aging, demand for MOBs is poised to grow in the coming years, especially in suburban centers, where residents will seek services closer to home,” Ressler said. “We are getting more calls from investors in other segments of real estate looking to pivot into medical office due to trends we are seeing in the general office. We are wondering if more competitive bid environments could keep pricing steady,” Thomas Allen, founder and CEO of Practice Real Estate Group, tells GlobeSt.com,

 

Source: GlobeSt.

$200 Million Loan Closed On A Joint Venture Between Dallas-Based Big Sky Medical Real Estate And GFH For Medical Office Building Portfolio

/in /by

BMO’s Healthcare Real Estate Finance group announces that it has closed on a $200 million term loan on behalf of a joint venture between Dallas-based Big Sky Medical Real Estate and GFH, an institutional investor based in Bahrain with a global portfolio of investments.

The BMO loan provided financing for the acquisition of 13 medical office buildings and life sciences facilities totaling approximately 714,000 square feet. The properties are located across the United States in growth submarkets within Wisconsin, Alabama, New Jersey, Texas and Pennsylvania. The Portfolio is 99% leased to a mix of leading investment grade health systems and specialist medical groups such as Children’s Wisconsin, Beaumont Health, Texas Health Resources, UPMC and Women’s Care Florida, with a weighted average lease term of almost 8 years.

Real estate firms like yours need a banking partner with extensive products and services, a strong capital base, and the ability to fund their needs through economic cycles. BMO’s dedicated team of real estate experts is your trusted adviser, helping developers, REITs, private equity funds and institutionally sponsored firms achieve their goals. To learn more about how BMO can help, visit bmoharris.com/realestate.

Banking products and services are provided by BMO and are subject to bank and credit approval. BMO Financial® is a trade name used by BMO Harris Bank N.A. Member FDIC

 

Source: HREI

Amazon Care Is Shutting Down At The End Of 2022. Here’s Why.

/in /by

Three years after it began piloting a primary care service for its employees that blended telehealth and in-person medical services, Amazon plans to cease operations of its Amazon Care service.

Amazon just announced that it would end Amazon Care operations after December 31. In an email to Amazon Health Services employees, Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said Amazon Care wasn’t a sustainable, long-term solution for its enterprise customers.

Amazon provided a copy of the email to Fierce Healthcare.

The decision only impacts Amazon Care and Care Medical teams and not Amazon’s other healthcare services. While operating Amazon Care, the company “gathered and listened to extensive feedback” from its enterprise customers and their employees and evolved the service to continuously improve the experience for customers, Lindsay wrote in the email to employees.

“However, despite these efforts, we’ve determined that Amazon Care isn’t the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers, and have decided that we will no longer offer Amazon Care after December 31, 2022,” Lindsay wrote. “This decision wasn’t made lightly and only became clear after many months of careful consideration. Although our enrolled members have loved many aspects of Amazon Care, it is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term.”

Amazon Care was a cornerstone of the company’s efforts to expand its footprint in the healthcare industry. The online retail company piloted virtual urgent care and primary care services with Amazon employees and their families in the Seattle region in 2019.

Amazon Care has since expanded rapidly with telehealth services available in all 50 states and in-person services in at least seven cities, including Dallas, D.C. and Baltimore. As part of its ambitions in healthcare, Amazon then focused on ramping up partnerships with employers and signed on other companies as clients including Silicon Labs, TrueBlue, Whole Foods Market, Precor—a Washington-based fitness equipment company that was acquired by Peloton—and Hilton.

Some industry insiders have said that Amazon Care struggled to gain a foothold with employer clients.

The company was on track to rapidly expand its hybrid care model to more than 20 additional cities in 2022, including major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and New York City.

CEO Andy Jassy has made healthcare a priority, citing Amazon Care as an example of “iterative innovation” in his first letter to shareholders earlier this year. In July, the company announced plans to buy concierge primary care provider One Medical in a deal valued at approximately $3.9 billion.

If the One Medical deal goes through, it would significantly expand Amazon’s foothold in the nearly $4 trillion healthcare market, specifically in the competitive primary care market.

One Medical markets itself as a membership-based, tech-integrated, consumer-focused primary care platform. The company operates 188 offices in 29 markets. At the end of March, One Medical had 767,000 members.

The deal also gives Amazon rapid access to the lucrative employer market as One Medical works with 8,000 companies. The One Medical acquisition has not yet closed.

Lindsay said the company’s work building Amazon Care has deepened its understanding of “what’s needed long-term to deliver meaningful health care solutions for enterprise and individual customers.”

“I believe the health care space is ripe for reinvention, and our efforts to help improve the health care experience can have an immensely positive impact on our quality of life and health outcomes. However, none of these reasons make this decision any easier for the teams that have helped to build Amazon Care, or for the customers our Care team serves,” Lindsay wrote.

“The decision to cease Amazon Care’s operations will likely mean some employees will be laid off.” Lindsay said in his email to employees. “Many Amazon Care employees will have an opportunity to join other parts of the Health Services organization or other teams at Amazon. We’ll also support employees looking for roles outside of the company.”

 

Source: Fierce Healthcare