Provider Perspective: Why health systems monetize MOBs

TENET HEALTHCARE VP SAYS RESOURCES ARE BEST SPENT ON CORE BUSINESS

By John Mugford

Nicholas Bonrepos

When a top officer with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. talked about his company’s relationship with its ancillary real estate, his explanation probably would have been a bit confusing to someone not involved in the medical space.

After all, Nicholas Bonrepos, the VP of real estate development for Dallas-based Tenet (NYSE: THC), described it like this: “We are in the healthcare business, not the real estate business – but we are in the real estate business.”

His point being that because Tenet owns and operates more than 50 hospitals and has $4.5 billion worth of property and equipment on its books, it is in the real estate business whether it wants to be or not.

“Tenet Healthcare has no words that say real estate in its name,” Mr. Bonrepos added. “Yet, we are a huge real estate company.”

At a conference in recent months, Mr. Bonrepos talked about the strategies and considerations that health systems need to consider when looking at selling, otherwise known as monetizing, their medical office buildings (MOBs).

At the time, he was addressing hundreds of healthcare real estate professionals at the RealShare Medical Office Buildings seminar in Dallas late last year.

Mr. Bonrepos was part of a panel discussion titled “Hospital Real Estate Monetization.” The tagline for the discussion was, “In an increasing uncertain capital markets environment, why should hospital and healthcare systems still consider the monetization of some, or all, of their real estate assets?”