Report: Denver’s Medical Office Building Market Picks Up Momentum

Metro Denver’s medical office building (MOB) market recorded strong fundamentals in the first half of 2021, according to CBRE’s Denver Medical Office MarketView H1 2021 report.

Saint Joseph Medical Office Pavilion, a 99,000-square-foot medical facility completed by Dallas-based Fidelis Healthcare Partners at 1818 Ogden Street in Denver. (PHOTO CREDIT: CBRE)

Positive new absorption of 150,318 square feet was recorded in H1 2021 with On-Campus space contributing to most of the absorption activity. Direct vacancy sat at 10.7% in H1 2021, a modest 28 basis points (bps) increase year-over-year, while overall availability was unchanged at 12.3%.

The average direct asking rate rose to $30.68 per square foot full-service gross (FSG), a 5.4% increase since H1 2020. A total of 174,000 square feet of newly constructed MOB space was delivered to the market in H1 2021 with 70.1% of the space already leased. The Denver MOB investment activity picked up momentum this year totaling $104.9 million in H1 2021, up 101.8% year-over-year.

Outlook

With absorptions rebounding sharply to pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2021, the Denver medical office market will continue to flourish as owners realign their space needs and discuss future projects.

Though economics is still driving transactions, there has been a flight to quality among tenants that is expected to continue over the next several quarters. The increased demand for healthcare properties is driving strong investor interest as seen by the increased sales activity in H1 2021 which is forecast to be even stronger throughout the balance of 2021 and beyond.

While there has been some impact to the medical office market from the COVID-19 pandemic, the activity during the first half of 2021 showed resiliency and a necessity for healthcare space.

 

Source: Mile High CRE

Allianz Lends $234M For MOB Portfolio Acquisition

In a $620.4 million deal, Nuveen Real Estate and NexCore have acquired a coast-to-coast portfolio of health-care and life science properties encompassing nearly 1.2 million square feet. The seller was IRA Capital.

The majority of the portfolio is a diversified group of 27 health-care assets that traded for $463 million. The portfolio encompasses properties in multiple states: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

Totaling nearly 750,000 square feet, the properties range from medical office buildings, micro-hospitals and ambulatory surgery facilities to cancer treatment centers. NexCore Group joined Nuveen Real Estate in underwriting the deal and will manage the assets.

The health-care portion of the transaction was led by Nuveen Real Estate’s new U.S. Cities Office Fund and brings the value of the firm’s holdings in the sector to more than $1 billion. Andrew Pike, head of health-care, cited the firm’s plans for aggressive growth in the sector.

Allianz Real Estate provided a $234 million loan toward the medical office acquisition. The loan will provide 51 percent of the total acquisition price, and the sponsors will have $228.9 million of equity in the transaction. The deal is structured on a seven-year term with a fixed-rate tranche of $163.8 million (70 percent) and a floating-rate tranche of $70.2 million (30 percent).

The portfolio is 99 percent occupied by 38 tenants, of which 92 percent are investment-grade credit healthcare systems. The portfolio rent roll has a weighted average unexpired lease term of 12 years, providing for a reasonable lease rollover profile during the loan term, according to Allianz.

Twenty of the 27 properties are in Certificate of Need (CON) states, where local governments require an extensive approval process to demonstrate a need for new healthcare facilities, providing high barriers to entry and regulatory restrictions around new supply.

Medical Sector Recovers

In a prepared statement, Mike Cale, co-head of U.S. Debt, Allianz Real Estate, U.S., said:  “The pandemic has emphasized the need for improved access to health-care. That trend has been illustrated by the demand for both outpatient facilities and hospital space for acute care. The medical office sector represents a unique, resilient asset class.”

This transaction marks Allianz’s second U.S. debt deal with Nuveen Real Estate, following Allianz’s $94 million financing of a six-property industrial portfolio for Nuveen’s U.S. Cities Industrial Fund in 2020.

The lack of demand for routine care and limitations on elective procedures, both in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to a 6.4 percent loss in health care employment in 2020, according to an April report from CBRE. That loss, however, was much less than in the overall economy, and health care jobs are rebounding rapidly.

Medical office buildings showed similar resilience, with annual investment volume falling by just 12.7 percent, the smallest decline for any major product category. Meanwhile, medical office property sales volume jumped in the fourth quarter of 2020, as cap rates continued a decade-long decrease.

Also part of the deal is the $157 million acquisition of two life science properties in Madison, Wis., and Orange County, Calif. Fully leased to three tenants, the assets comprise 420,000 square feet and will add to Nuveen’s 4 million-square-foot life science portfolio. The properties were acquired via TIAA’s balance sheet, according to Nuveen Real Estate.

Since November 2020, Nuveen and NexCore have teamed up on transactions valued at $687 million, noted Todd Varney, NexCore’s chief development officer & managing partner. The assets include 34 buildings totaling 1.4 million square feet, along with 200,000 square feet in development.

 

Source: Commercial Property Executive

Cornerstone Companies MOB Fund VI Acquires 12 Medical Properties In Nine States For $48.7 Million

Cornerstone Companies, Inc. has closed on its sixth medical office building portfolio; acquiring 12 healthcare real estate properties in nine states totaling more than 155,000 square feet.

The properties have been acquired by Cornerstone Fund VI for $48.7 million by Cornerstone MOB Fund VI, a private equity fund focused solely on medical  real estate. Cornerstone is the fund’s general partner.

The fund’s portfolio includes six individual clinical MOBs, three clinic/ambulatory surgery centers, an imaging and diagnostics center, a senior care facility, and a single stand-alone ambulatory surgery center. The facilities are located in the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest

The Fund VI portfolio assets include:

• Gateway Clinic Medical Office Building in Moose Lake, MN – an 18,000-square-foot medical office building on the campus of Essentia Health’s Moose Lake Hospital, which is a level IV trauma center. Gateway Clinic is the largest independent multi-specialty practice along the I-35 corridor which connects Minneapolis and Duluth. Gateway Clinic provides five core specialties including general surgery, emergency medicine, family medicine, obstetrics and internal medicine.

• Owensboro Dermatology ASC in Newburgh, IN – a 10,000-square-foot dermatology clinic and ambulatory surgery center scheduled to be completed in November 2021. The new ASC and clinic will have eight exam rooms, four procedure rooms and one operating room. Owensboro Dermatology Associates is the market leading dermatology practice in the Evansville-Owensboro market, and the second-largest dermatology practice in a 100-mile radius of Louisville, KY.

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center Shelbyville Clinic in Shelbyville, TN – a 16,000-square- foot multi-specialty clinic including women’s health, endocrinology, internal medicine, wound care, family medicine, pulmonology and sleep medicine. VUMC operates nine hospital systems and 48 hospital locations, inclusive of clinics, physician practices and affiliates practices.

• Crestview Medical Office Buildings in Crestview, FL – three medical office buildings comprising more than 25,000 square feet on the campus of North Okaloosa Medical Center, approximately 45 minutes northwest of Pensacola. The buildings feature multi-specialty clinical space, including urology, cardiology, rehab, podiatry, primary care, sleep lab and human resources.

• Keystone Eye Associates ASC & Clinic in Philadelphia, PA – a 14,000-square-foot, full- service ophthalmology clinic and ambulatory surgery center. Keystone Eye Associates is one of the leading ophthalmology practices in Philadelphia, PA. Amongst 18 independent ophthalmology practices in Philadelphia, Keystone Eye Associates is the highest performing as ranked by procedure volume.

• Atlantic Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Center in Greenville, NC – a 9,000-square-foot outpatient endoscopic facility specializing in colorectal cancer screening and the treatment of various diseases involving the digestive tract. The property houses the twenty-year-old practice clinical practice as well as a two operating room ambulatory surgery center.

• Hollywood Diagnostics Center in Hollywood, FL – a 9,500-square-foot full-service diagnostics center including open and high-field MRI, CT scan, PET scan, mammography with 3D tomo,  ultrasound and x-ray. The facility treats more than 30,000 patients per year.

• Surgery Center of Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, LA – an 11,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center which is home to the joint venture between Surgery Partners, Inc. and five leading  interventional pain specialists. Surgery Partners is a leading operator of surgical facilities, with more than 180 locations nationwide. The Surgery Center of Baton Rouge is the market leading interventional spine practice providing procedures, therapeutic injections and neurostimulation in a state-of-the-art setting.

• Henry Ford PACE Senior Care in Pontiac, MI – a 30,000-square-foot facility providing primary and specialty care, physical therapy and assisted living services for aging adults. PACE of SouthEast Michigan is a joint venture between Henry Ford Health and Presbyterian Villages, the largest assisted living operator in Michigan. PACE of Southeast Michigan operates six facilities in southeast Michigan and is a nationally recognized leader in the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE.)

• OrthoArizona MOB in Mesa, AZ – a 10,000-square-foot medical office building that is 100- percent leased to OrthoArizona, the second-largest orthopedic practice in Arizona. The MOB provides clinical orthopedics, podiatry and physical therapy services.

All of the Cornerstone MOB Fund VI assets are supported by net leases with a weighted average lease term for the entire 12-property portfolio of more than 10 years. Fund VI is projected to deliver a five-year average cash-on-cash yield of more than 11 percent to its investors.

Cornerstone has acquired more than $150 million in healthcare assets over the past four years amongst five other Cornerstone MOB Funds. Cornerstone sold MOB Fund I in 2018, generating a 17-percent IRR for its investors. Cornerstone MOB Funds II, III, IV and V generated cash-on-cash returns in 2020 of 11.51percent, 11.49 percent, 10.51 percent and 12.03 percent respectively.

About Cornerstone Companies, Inc.

Cornerstone Companies, Inc. is a leading healthcare real estate firm, drawing on more than 35 years of experience. With an exclusive focus on the healthcare real estate industry, Cornerstone helps physicians, hospitals, and third-party owners across the nation develop, build, lease, manage and optimize their healthcare real estate while enhancing the patient and provider experience. To  date, Cornerstone has successfully completed more than $1 billion of medical office developments and currently manages more than 100 medical facilities encompassing 7.7M SF. To learn more, visit cornerstonecompaniesinc.com.

 

Source: HREI