Posts

graph with upward arrow_canstockphoto6810460 800x533

Another MOB Sales Record: $25 Billion In 2022

Perhaps James A. Schmid III, chief investment officer and managing partner with Media, Pa.-based Anchor Health Properties, summed up how many successful healthcare real estate (HRE) investment and development firms are going about their business at a time when costs and interest rates are on the rise.

“Last year, 2022 was certainly a pivot point, I think, both for our sector as well as commercial real estate and the economy as a whole,” Mr. Schmid said. “It was, in aggregate, a very successful year for us as we closed just over $600 million of new acquisitions, monetized and or recapitalized several hundred million of developed and/or owned assets … and monetized a strategic position in our operating business with a client of Stepstone Real Estate, an international offshore client.

“That being said,” he added, “as the market has continued to move, with interest rates continuing to rise as the (U.S. Federal Reserve Bank) increases rates, we’ve continued to be more and more selective about decisions we make, particularly with new investments – trying to be thoughtful about what where we want to own and why, trying to focus on our areas of strength and scale across our platform.

“This is also true on the development front, where we continue to be extremely active. We really haven’t seen much of a slowdown in development; if anything, we’ve seen a continued acceleration in development in different parts of the country, particularly high growth markets where health systems and physician clients alike have a continued need for more and more specific space for clinical use.”

Mr. Schmid was a guest speaker during a fourth quarter (Q4) subscriber webcast hosted Jan. 24 by Arnold, Md.-based Revista, a data firm that provides a wide variety of statistics on the HRE sector to its subscribers.

The $2.2 billion of MOB sales in Q4 will likely, when all of the transactions are recorded, rise about 30 percent, to about $3 billion, according to Revista. (Slide courtesy of Revista)

The webcast led by Revista principals Mike Hargrave and Hilda Martin focused heavily on medical office building (MOB) market data during this time of inflation and rising debt costs, with much of that data reaffirming what a strong industry the HRE sector continues to be.

 

Source: HREI

Encouraging Signs For MOB Development

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, most health systems have been forced to put most their efforts into surviving the crisis, leaving little time to think about growing their ambulatory networks and initiating new medical office building (MOB) development projects.

In recent weeks, however, with the opening up of non-elective surgeries in most states, there are reports that this could be changing.

According to Ben Ochs, CEO and managing partner of one of the healthcare real estate (HRE) sector’s most-active development firms in recent years, Media, Pa.-based Anchor Health Properties, requests for proposals (RFPs) from the health systems are starting to resurface.

“Instead of actively pursuing development deals with health systems during the throes of the pandemic and knocking on their doors, Anchor has been, for the most part, waiting for the health systems to be the initiators,” Ochs noted. “That said, we have seen a number of system-sponsored RFPs come out … and I think at last count we’re in the middle of responding to about four, right now, which I think is a very positive sign.”

Mr. Ochs was one of three panelists to take part in a June 10 HRE webinar titled, “State of the Industry: What’s the Outlook for 2020 from an Investment, Development and Leasing/Operations Perspective?

The two-part online event, sponsored by Atlanta-based InterFace Conference Group, began with a panel discussion on investment. That was followed by a session on development that featured Mr. Ochs, along with Mark Davis of longtime Minneapolis-based HRE development firm Davis, and Chad Henderson of Pensacola, Fla.-based Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate (HRE). HREI Publisher Murray W. Wolf moderated the development discussion.

 

Source: HREI