Another REIT joins healthcare arena

CARE INVESTMENT TRUST HOPES TO RAISE $275 MILLION IN IPO

 

Staff Report

 

NEW YORK – New York-based CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT) recently announced that it is looking to raise up to $275 million through an initial public offering (IPO) for its newly organized healthcare real estate investment trust (REIT). The name of the REIT is Care Investment Trust Inc., which would principally invest in healthcare-related commercial mortgage debt and real estate.

CIT did not provide details about the number of shares being offered or the estimated price range of the IPO. It has filed a registration statement on Form S-11 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the IPO. If approved by the SEC, the REIT would trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CRE.

CIT Group is a commercial and consumer finance company with more than $74 billion in managed assets; the company has a healthcare unit called CIT Healthcare LLC, which funded about $2.2 billion in healthcare loans last year and which will manage Care Investment Trust, according to a press release from the company.
As for the new REIT, CIT says it will provide financing and investments to companies in a full range of healthcare-related facilities, including hospitals, assisted living centers, medical office buildings (MOBs), skilled nursing centers, independent living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and laboratories. 

A portion of the proceeds from the IPO is to be used to partially cover the initial investment needed to form the REIT. The remainder will be used for investments and for general corporate purposes, according to the press release.

Credit Suisse Securities and Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. will act as joint book running managers.

Healthcare banking

execs, Wexford,

form new firm

BALTIMORE, Md. — Two Mid-Atlantic area healthcare banking executives, William N. Apollony and Leigh T. Howe, recently teamed with Hanover, Md.-based Wexford Equities to form a new healthcare real estate firm, Windsor Healthcare.

According to a press release from the Baltimore area firm, the company focuses on investments and equity positions in long-term care and acute-care facility development. Those property types are likely to include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), MOBs, surgery centers, hospitals, and other types of outpatient facilities.

Mr. Apollony and Ms. Howe have 50-plus years of combined experience in the healthcare industry.

“Our game plan is to use our extensive expertise in healthcare banking, our strong referral network, and deep healthcare relationships that stretch from Florida to New England to the Midwest in order to position

Windsor Healthcare as a long-term partner for proven healthcare facility operators, providing access to a substantial source of private equity in order to deliver high-quality healthcare services,” states Mr. Apollony in a press release.

“We’ve seen the issues and concerns that healthcare facility operators have, and know the cycles that they experience,” adds Ms. Howe. “We know what factors are required for successful operations and are in a unique position to determine opportunities that provide the potential for the greatest return on investment.

It’s that kind of knowledge that we intend to leverage so that all of the players in a development – the operators, the bankers, and the investors – win.”

Mr. Apollony and Ms. Howe were members of Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T Bank’s Healthcare Banking Group prior to starting Windsor Healthcare. Mr. Apollony served as senior vice president and the group head of Healthcare Banking; Ms. Howe was administrative vice president and the manager of the Long Term Care Unit.

Wexford Equities is a private investment company headquartered in Hanover, Maryland. In addition to its involvement with Windsor Healthcare, Wexford Equities owns Wexford Science + Technology, which develops research and development projects for health systems and research institutions. Company officials say that by forming the new healthcare firm they are creating synergy between Windsor and Wexford Science + Technology.

McCarthy begins

$67 million expansion

in Mission Viejo, Calif.

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. recently began construction on a $67 million expansion at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.. The hospital is part of Orange, Calif.-based St. Joseph Health System.

McCarthy is the general contractor on a project that entails the construction of a four-level critical care patient tower that will add 64 private patient rooms to the existing 317-bed hospital tower. The new facility will house 24 medical/surgical beds, 40 ICU beds (20 per floor), diagnostic imaging, nuclear medicine, a linear accelerator, a chapel, and a meditation garden, as well as support and mechanical space. The plan also calls for the construction of a 175-foot-long pedestrian bridge that will connect the new patient tower with the main hospital building.

The timeline calls for 11 months of site work, including the installation of utilities, reconfiguring the current entrance and the parking lot, and razing an existing two-story conference center. Completion is slated for 2009.

The architect on the project is Los Angeles-based RBB Architects Inc.

FOR THE RECORD

New York-based Turner Construction Co. was recently selected as the general contractor on two major healthcare projects: The $89 million Harborview Ninth and Jefferson Medical Office Building in Seattle; and the $54 million critical care addition to St. Luke’s Hospital in Allentown, Pa. The St. Luke’s project includes a five-story, 213,000 square foot addition that would add a new emergency department, a new atrium, a cardiac care unit and cardiac testing area with 18 private patient rooms and eight critical care patient rooms, two laboratories within a cardiac catherization suite and a new surgery suite. The project will also provide shell space for two future operating rooms as well as surgery support spaces. Completion is scheduled for December 2008… The team of HuntonBrady Architects of Orlando, Fla., and Ellenzwieg Associates Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., has been chosen to design a $33 million building at the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine at the UCF Health Sciences Campus in Lake Nona, Fla. The four-story, 100,000 square foot building is currently in the programming and conceptual design phase. It will house both a medical library and medical instructional spaces and is scheduled for completion in fall 2009… The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano (Texas), an all-digital, 68-bed cardiovascular center designed by Chicago-based RTKL Associates Inc., recently opened its doors. The $106 million, 197,000 square foot heart hospital is adjacent to Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, which is part of Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System. The bow-tie-shaped patient tower is a partnership of Baylor and 86 cardiovascular physicians and surgeons. Additional consultants included Trammell Crow Healthcare Services as program managers; Dallas-based MEDCO Construction Co. as the general contractor; and Zinser/Grossman Structural as the structural engineer. q