Most recent $60 million buy brings firm’s total to more than 600,000 square feet
By John B. Mugford
The 11,920 square foot 75 Baker St. building in Providence, R.I., is one of 12 mostly medical properties Benedict Realty Group recently acquired for $60 million, adding to a portfolio of mostly medical buildings totaling more than 600,000 square feet. (Photo courtesy of HFF)
In an early fourth quarter (Q4) 2016 transaction that seemed to slip under the radar of many publications, New York-based Benedict Realty Group (BRG) closed on purchase of a $60 million, 12-building portfolio comprising mostly medical tenants in Providence.
According to data from real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc. (RCA), the portfolio has a total of 347,214 square feet of space, meaning BRG paid $173 per square foot (PSF).
Major medical tenants in the portfolio, which includes some research firms as well as general office tenants, are:
■ Providence-based Lifespan, a six-hospital, multi-clinic health and research system with nearly 14,000 employees and 1,155 licensed beds, and
■ the 645-bed Rhode Island Hospital, which is part of Lifespan and the main teaching hospital for the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence.
The seller of the portfolio was Providence-based Belvoir Properties, a real estate development and management company. Brokering the sale for Belvoir was Colliers International.
All of the buildings involved in the transaction look to be located on or adjacent to Rhode Island Hospital at 593 Eddy St. in downtown Providence.
The hospital, just a few blocks from the Providence River, is just off U.S. Interstate 95.
BRG looks to have paid the most for a building at 225 Chapman St., which looks to be home to mostly general office tenants, according to RCA data, which says the building has an appraised value of $9 million.
The largest pure MOB involved in the transaction looks to be the building at 245 Chapman St., a 41,208 square foot building appraised at $7.5 million, or $182 PSF. The building is home to services offered by Rhode Island Hospital and other tenants.
Another larger, pure MOB in the transaction is the 36,451 square foot building at 765 Allens Ave. Built in 1940, the two-story facility was renovated in 2006 and is home to Rhode Island Hospital, Lifespan Corp., and Northeast Orthotics & Prosthetics. It was appraised at $6.4 million, according to RCA.
In an article published by GlobeSt.com, Daniel Benedict, BRG’s founder and president, said that the company, which has long focused on the multi-family sector, is now bullish on medical office properties and expects to purchase up to $200 million of such facilities close to “top tier medical institutions along the East Coast, where the demand for medical office properties is greater and where we know the market.”
With the latest portfolio acquisition in Providence, BRG now owns 17 MOBs with more than 600,000 square feet of space on the East Coast. He adds that the company is not likely to make acquisitions of less than 50,000 square feet.
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