Nuveen Real Estate, NexCore Team on $620M Deal

Integris Community Hospital – Council Crossing in Oklahoma City, Okla. Image courtesy of Allianz Real Estate

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).

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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

Mount Sinai Doctors, a medical office building in Manhasset, N.Y., acquired by Nuveen Real Estate and NexCore. Photo courtesy of NexCore

Mike Cale, co-head of U.S. Debt, Allianz Real Estate, U.S., said in a prepared statement that 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, Cale added.

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.