Monday, March 06, 2006

Jones Lang LaSalle

EXCLUSIVE: $88M Takes 252,000-SF Medical Office Building
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: March 1, 2006 02:47pm

HACKENSACK, NJ-ProMed Properties, a newly formed company targeting medical office buildings, has acquired the leasehold interest in Hackensack University Medical Plaza, a 252,000-sf class A building with a seven-level, attached 1,700-car parking garage, for $87.5 million, GlobeSt.com has learned. ProMed is a Miami-based subsidiary of Gazit-Globe, an Israeli real estate investment company listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.

The seller was Seavest Inc., a privately held investment and wealth management group based in White Plains. The deal was arranged for Seavest by the New York City-based Granite Partners LLC.

"This transaction is indicative of the strength of the class A segment of the medical office market as the going-in yield was aggressive for the first two years of the hold," John D. Lyons, president of Granite Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. "That was a reflection of the credit quality of the hospital and the uniqueness of the office building/parking garage property.

"We have made a business decision to aggressively expand into this sector," Lyons says. "We look beyond the field of investors that would normally consider an investment of this type. We've discovered that it makes sense to target a much wider capital market, both domestic and foreign, and also from private and institutional sources."

According to information provided by Gazit-Globe, the property leasehold rights extend through the year 2041. Some 30% of the total purchase price will be financed by the company from its own resources, according to a spokesman, and the balance will be funded through the assignment of an existing loan on the building.

Built in 1998, the building and its parking structure are on the campus of and attached to the Hackensack University Medical Center. Fully integrated into and master-leased by the medical center, the asset is used for medical offices and ambulatory care. "We're seeing that on-campus facilities like this one have become particularly attractive to institutional investors," Lyons says.
According to a source, the completed transaction originated this past fall. It's also the initial medical office building acquisition by Gazit-Globe through its ProMed subsidiary. Gazit-Globe's board of directors late last year approved $300 million for investments in this asset class in the US.