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The St. Joe Company, Tallahassee Memorial Health Care And Florida State University Break Ground On New HealthCare Campus

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The St. Joe Company, Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare celebrated the construction kickoff Tuesday, January 17, 2023 of a health care campus in Panama City Beach that will bring together clinicians, researchers and students to better serve the medical needs of the Florida Panhandle.

The FSU Health-Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Medical Campus will be located on an 87-acre parcel of land just minutes from the Latitude Margaritaville Watersound community, St. Joe’s 55-plus community that recently sold its 1,000th home.

“Today’s celebration represents a very important step forward for our community,” says Jorge Gonzalez, President and CEO of The St. Joe Company. “This medical campus, backed by the expertise of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University, is a crucial element for supporting the health and well-being of residents and visitors in every stage of life. It also has the potential to create synergistic opportunities between research, education, and clinical delivery, to enhance quality of life throughout the region and beyond.”

Development plans include an 80,000-square-foot medical office building scheduled to be complete in 2024. This medical office building is planned to ultimately house TMH Physician Partners – Primary Care, Tallahassee Memorial Urgent Care Center, an ambulatory surgery center, as well as cardiology and orthopedic services. Plans include a 100-bed hospital with an emergency center and other inpatient services, including surgery, cardiology procedures and imaging, expected to be completed in 2027.

The project will also include opportunities for FSU researchers focused on aging and digital health, as well as residency programs and educational rotations for FSU medical students.

“Today’s construction kickoff comes at a pivotal time for TMH as we celebrate our 75th anniversary this year,” said Mark O’Bryant, President & CEO of TMH, which serves a 21-county area in North Florida, Georgia and Alabama. “We have grown from a small, city-owned hospital into a comprehensive healthcare system. As the population in our region increases, TMH has identified a substantial need to expand healthcare services. Over the past seven and a half decades, we’ve built a reputation for excellent, compassionate and local care, and we are proud to now offer our services to the Panama City Beach communities.”

Over the past several years, Florida State University has been growing its health research portfolio while also pursuing partnerships with major health care systems such as TMH and others. It’s also increased opportunities for students through its College of Medicine, opening a physician’s assistant training program, and is welcoming the first cohort of its new doctoral program in nursing at the College of Nursing this fall.

“FSU has long enjoyed being a part of this community through our Panama City Campus,” said FSU President Richard McCullough. “Now, we’re looking forward to expanding our presence and continuing to serve the residents here through this health care initiative. Research universities can play an important role in a vibrant health care delivery system, and FSU looks forward to playing that role right here in Bay County. This area is experiencing an incredible boom in population and the possibilities — and needs — have never been greater. There are tremendous opportunities for collaboration on research, education, and clinical health care across the region — and I’m excited that it begins right here with this medical campus.”

The university also plans to break ground on the FSU Health Tallahassee Center on the TMH campus later this year with the support of a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature. Gonzalez, O’Bryant and McCullough were joined at the groundbreaking by U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, R-FL, and Panama City Beach Mayor Mark Sheldon as well as TMH Vice President and Chief Health Operations Officer Andrew Starr and other local officials from the Bay County area.

The project has generated considerable interest in the Florida Panhandle and throughout the state. Estimates show that Florida will have a shortfall of 4,700 primary care physicians by 2030 and 60,000 nurses by 2035. At the same time, the state is growing. Florida was the fastest growing state last year, with a population growth of 1.9%.

“Because we are a nonprofit, community-based healthcare system, we recognize that TMH is a community asset that drives the health of our region’s residents,” Starr said. “As we grow, we remain dedicated to the sacred trust given to us by our patients to care for them when they need it most. This is why we are developing strategic partnerships throughout the region and investing in the most advanced lifesaving technology. We are building the best-in-class healthcare system our region deserves.”

View photos from the Construction Celebration here.
View a video of the Construction Celebration here.

 

Source: BusinessWire

GFH Financial Group Acquires U.S. Medical Offices Portfolio In $400M Deal

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GFH Financial Group, an investment bank based in Bahrain, has acquired a portfolio of medical clinics in the US in a deal valued at $400 million, expanding its real estate portfolio in the world’s largest economy.

The income-yielding medical clinics portfolio consists of 11 assets with more than one million square feet of space and is spread across California, Texas, Maryland and Louisiana, GFH said.

“We are pleased to announce the acquisition of this prime, income-yielding medical clinic portfolio as part of GFH’s ongoing expansion in the medical office building sector in fast-growing cities across the US,” Nael Mustafa, co-chief investment officer of real estate at GFH, said. “We believe strongly in the long-term fundamentals in the healthcare sector and the dynamics that are supporting an increase in demand for high-quality medical office space.”

To date, GFH has built a portfolio of assets in the US medical office building sector valued at $1 billion. In December, it acquired a portfolio of medical offices in the US in a deal valued at $200M. The medical offices portfolio consists of 11 assets with more than 400,000 square feet of space spread across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Utah, Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas.

The latest portfolio is anchored by investment-grade credit tenancy through Baylor Scott & White (Moody’s Aa3), Texas A&M Health Science Centre (Fitch: AAA), Texas Tech University (Fitch AA+), Memorial Hermann (S&P A+) and Tidal Health (Moody’s Aa3), GFH said. The assets also offer unique specialisations within their respective submarkets, positioning them for high occupancy and rent growth, it added.

The medical clinics sector has been strong performing and proven to be highly resilient to economic downturns — with 99 per cent rent collection during the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector also benefits from population growth and the aging US population accompanied by an increase in healthcare expenditure, which accounted for nearly 19 per cent of the US GDP last year, GFH said.

“Aging populations and growth in outpatient care … continue to make the sector highly recession-resilient and unimpacted by economic cycles. We look forward to working with our partner Big Sky Medical to maximize the value of these assets,” Mr Mustafa said.

GFH’s partnership with Big Sky has resulted in a number of acquisitions totalling nearly $500M in the past six months. This transaction is the third in a series of joint acquisitions.

GFH Financial Group reported a 10 per cent increase in its second-quarter profit as investment banking income and income from co-investments rose as the company continues to boost its portfolio around the globe.

Net profit attributable to shareholders of the bank for the three months to the end of June climbed to $23.06M compared with $20.92M during the same period last year.

 

Source: The National News

Medical Office Rents Weather The COVID-19 Storm

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The medical office sector hasn’t been immune from issues caused by COVID-19.

But Kyle O’Connor, president and founder of MLL Capital, would still rather be in that commercial real estate asset class than any other part right now.

“The medical health care sector and the life science sector seems to be holding up a bit better than some other property types. Certainly, hotels or retail are having a different experience. For us, it’s one of the reasons why we liked the sector and continue to like it a lot. We viewed the asset class as having a number of supportive features associated with it.”

Still, O’Connor says there are issues in the medical sector.

“A lot of people are very concerned that the risk of catching something in the doctor’s office might be greater than whatever the issue in the house. Over time, I think the expectation is that it will dissipate, and the need for those basic health care services will resume.”

In April, MLL, which has 15 buildings in the medical and life sciences sector, collected 97% of rents. In May, the company collected more than 97%. And, as things open up in June, O’Connor sees things improving further. America’s vast, aging baby boomer demographic is one reason that O’Connor likes the medical segment, but it’s not the only reason.

“We find that a lot of the practices are in relatively healthy condition. Their leverage levels tend to be lower in many cases. It is a business that does not have a lot of high highs or low lows.”

In a market where there’s still a lot of capital, and other sectors of CRE are floundering, O’Connor expects more interest in medical office properties. But interested buyers will run into roadblocks.

“Because of the specialty nature of the property types and the things that you learn by being in the space for a bit, I’m not concerned. It is a type of property where it’s very beneficial to have experience and knowledge. We don’t think it’s one that, you know, capital readily flows into. But investors are still taking a wait-and-see approach for the time being. For a small asset class like medical is, it’s too early to make any real prognostications. We do think that it is the right time to be in the market and looking for investment opportunities, which we’re trying to put a lot of energy into doing right now.”

Right now, O’Connor doesn’t see large loads of capital focused on the space.

“They may have some other opportunities that are distracting them or maybe presenting themselves.”

Right now, O’Connor sees that capital focused on other targets.

“I think if you’re an opportunistic fund, you’re probably spending a lot more time looking at the hotel sector, than you would be the medical sector. There’s probably distress pricing happening there. I’m sure some hotels are in default. Whereas, most medical office buildings have had a performing loan in March or probably still going to have a performing loan in the future.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.