Our Health Care Real Estate Briefing is your comprehensive summary of weekly health care real estate highlights currently happening across the nation.
This week, trade associations for skilled nursing facility (“SNF”) operators are asking to meet with the Biden Administration to talk about his plans to overhaul staffing and quality requirements for SNFs. The associations believe Biden’s approach will be difficult to implement and will harm an industry that has suffered financially from COVID-19. In other news, Congress has allocated more dollars towards affordable senior housing projects under HUD’s Section 202 program. Certificate of Need (“CON”) laws across the country are being challenged in the courts and through legislative action. Georgia is the most recent state to push for a repeal of its CON law. Finally, a number of hospital systems have announced large projects, many of which include adaptive reuse of retail or office properties.
- Congress passed a $1.5T spending bill last week that includes a 21% increase in funding for the HUD’s Section 202 program that provides capital to new affordable senior housing projects per McKnights.
- Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to announce plans to reshape its real estate portfolio to reflect changes in health care delivery and the needs of its members. The VA is expected to announce plans to build 225 new health care and community living facilities and also plans on closing 3 medical centers and 170 outpatient facilities per Federal News Network.
- Georgia legislators proposed a bill that would eliminate its CON law by 2025 and provide for certain exemptions to the current CON law for surgery centers before the law is repealed per Becker’s.
- A new article in PREA Quarterly by RCLCO makes the case for investing in MOBs. Factors include strong demand for space because of our aging population, delivery of health care services has shifted from inpatient to outpatient, limited new construction, high tenant retention (80% to 90% renewal rates) and total health care spending is expected to increase over the next 30 years.
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia provided an update on the $3.5B in construction projects that it has planned through 2028, including a 17-story, 560K sf hub for clinical collaboration, a 1.3M sf patient tower, a new research building, a new logistics center and two new behavioral health units per Philadelphia Business Journal.
- Inova Health System provided more details on its plans to redevelop the Landmark Mall in Alexandria, VA. Their plans include a 231-bed hospital with 565K sf, a new cancer center with 107K sf, a new outpatient center with 88K sf and a new parking deck per Washington Business Journal.
- NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has purchased a 25-acre office park with 373K sf in White Plains, NY for $83.5M with plans to develop a multi-specialty ambulatory care center on the property per Westchester Business Journal.
- Welltower has agreed to acquire 33 senior housing communities for $548M from StoryPoint Senior Living. Most of the communities offer assisted living and memory care and have an average occupancy of 63% per Senior Housing News.
- A former UPMC hospital in Lancaster, PA is being redeveloped into apartments and a developer acquired a former HCA hospital in Nashville, TN with plans to potentially redevelop the site for residential and retail uses per Daily Record and Nashville Post.
- A former Masonic temple in Oakland, CA is being converted into a medical office building per The Mercury News.
