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Allianz Lends $234M For MOB Portfolio Acquisition

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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

Borrowers And Lenders Are Adapting To The Hot Heathcare Real Estate Market

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When it comes to financing medical office building (MOB) acquisitions, the cost of capital is not always the most important factor in choosing a lender.

“In fact, when a nine-property MOB portfolio in the Atlanta area changed hands in a sale-leaseback transaction in late 2019, the borrower on the $25 million loan chose to go with a lender that did not have the lowest cost but that knew the tenant best so that they could make sure that everything would go quickly through due diligence and get to closing and not hit any bumps along the way,” said Sabrina Solomiany, a first VP, US Healthcare Capital Markets Debt & Structured Finance with CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE: CBRE), who helped line up the debt for the buyer. “It was very competitive, but ultimately we went with Synovus, with part of the reason being that even though they did not necessarily have the most competitive terms, they actually had a banking relationship with the physician group.”

Ms. Solomiany made her remarks during the recent Revista Medical Real Estate Investment Forum 2020, held Jan. 27-29 at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. She was part of a panel session titled, “Debt Outside the Box: Construction, Mezz & Alternative Asset Classes.” Joining Ms. Solomiany on the panel were: Natalie Sproull, VP with Capital One (NYSE: COF), as moderator; Jim Barnes, director of Healthcare Specialty Lending with Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV); and Andrew Smith, managing director with Los Angeles-based Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP.

During the session, the panelists discussed some of the latest trends in healthcare real estate (HRE) financing when it comes to acquisitions as well as development deals. Part of the discussion focused on how and why certain HRE deals get done.

“When it comes to construction financing of medical projects, people are often surprised that the first few things I consider are not always financial in nature, said Mr. Barnes of Columbus, Ga.-based Synovous. “I like to look more at the expertise of the developer,” he said, “making sure that the developer really has a deep experience in delivering medical properties on time and within budget. This has become much more important recently with the trend toward greater institutional equity investment and, for the most part, the institutional investors having much less expertise in construction than the developers. Secondly, the firm looks for strong sponsorship either from a hospital system or a longstanding, stabilized private practice – something that will create an anchor within the property.”

 

Source: HREI