The University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) is adding a mix of urgent care, primary care, freestanding emergency departments, and imaging centers to its portfolio. The move by Medical Properties Trust follows the real estate company’s recent sell-off activity, as it aims to trim down debt.
Sila Realty Trust, Inc., a net lease real estate investment trust focused on investing in high quality healthcare properties across the continuum of care, just announced the acquisition of five Class A healthcare facilities located in Arizona and Texas, for a contract purchase price of $85.5 million.
The Portfolio is comprised of four built-to-suit micro-hospitals and one freestanding emergency department, totaling approximately 158,000 square feet on a combined 17.5 acres. Each of the micro-hospitals is licensed for 8-inpatient beds, and offers a 13-bed emergency department, operating room, laboratory, diagnostic imaging suite, and a pharmacy. The freestanding emergency department is a 13-bed full-service emergency center, constructed to also offer the same services as the micro-hospitals.
The Portfolio is 100% leased by Tenet Healthcare Corporation, one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems, with over 15,000 licensed beds, which designed and developed these facilities from 2019 through 2021. Each property is operated under the name of the local affiliated hospital brand of Tenet.
Two of the micro-hospitals are in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona metropolitan statistical area and operate under the brand of Abrazo Health. One micro-hospital and the freestanding emergency department are in the Tucson, Arizona MSA and operate under the brand of Carondelet Health. The additional micro-hospital is in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas MSA and operates under the brand of Valley Baptist Health. Tenet strategically chose each of these locations due to its belief that each exhibits strong population density and demographics, and positive growth characteristics.
“We are pleased to announce the closing of this portfolio of properties which are emblematic of the healthcare facilities that Sila Realty Trust is focused on acquiring – high quality, well located, strong credit tenancy with healthcare system affiliations,” stated Michael A. Seton, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. “This acquisition demonstrates our ability to source property and invest capital in what we believe to be an accretive manner to the Company while others remain on the sidelines.”
Sila Realty Trust, Inc. is a net lease real estate investment trust headquartered in Tampa, Florida, with a strategic focus on investing in the significant, growing, and resilient healthcare sector of the U.S. economy. The Company invests in high quality healthcare facilities along the continuum of care, which, we believe, generate predictable, durable, and growing income streams. Our portfolio is comprised of high quality tenants in geographically diverse facilities which are positioned to capitalize on the dynamic delivery of healthcare to patients. As of December 31, 2023, the Company owned 131 real estate properties and two undeveloped land parcels located in 62 markets across the U.S.
Source: HREI
When the topic of adaptive reuse of existing CRE properties comes up, the most typical angle is turning older office buildings into apartments.
While 2023 was a particularly active year, with 55,000 office to apartment unit conversions, according to Yardi’s Rent Café, that’s a small proportion of the 440,000 total units constructed by Real Page’s count.
Instead, developers, owners, and investors might look to other reuse, like healthcare. As that industry moves away from to outpatient care at distributed locations, it increasingly needs space. There are clinics and practices in spaces within shopping malls, freestanding retail locations, former general office buildings, and other repurposed spaces.
Becker’s Hospital Review recently looked at how Hartford HealthCare had used such properties as “a shuttered Blockbuster store, a vacant Bed Bath & Beyond and an old funeral home.”
“Though Hartford HealthCare’s approach to convenience is unique, the goal itself is shared among many health systems,” they wrote. “More organizations are zeroing in on outpatient, ambulatory care offerings as they look to retain hospital space for acute care. From freestanding emergency departments to grocery store walk-up clinics, health systems are testing new methods to expand their footprints (and appease an increasingly impatient patient before they make the switch to Amazon).”
As the Center for Health Design has noted, reuse of buildings can be more economical than trying ground-up construction, especially with the cost of land, materials, and labor in many metropolitan areas.
Appropriate buildings are not available in all locations, so repurposing is frequently not a viable alternative. Renovation costs can at times run more than new construction. There can be zoning restrictions or difficulties with community stakeholders. But there are also opportunities. Unoccupied buildings that have been sitting on the market are often available at discounted prices. If reuse of the infrastructure is possible, that becomes an additional source of savings. Often suitable buildings are available in prime locations that otherwise would be impossible to obtain.
As an article in Medical Construction & Design notes, there are additional considerations. One is visibility from the street. There should be easy access and sufficient parking. One similarity to repurposing space for logistics and warehouses is ceiling heights, “as the 10- or 11-foot ceilings common to strip-mall retail centers and commercial office buildings often don’t work for healthcare facilities.” But if the space has ceilings that are too high, like in a superstore type retail space, building interior partitions may be too difficult.
Consideration also needs a structural engineering analysis, including seismic loading and vibration. Existing elevators may be too small to enable travel by gurneys. Healthcare HVAC needs are more complex. The number of needed fixtures in restrooms may be three to four times as much as in a retail or office space. The need for greater scale is also true for electrical power.
Source: GlobeSt
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