HREI Insights Awards: Mike Noto wins Lifetime Achievement Award

 

Mike Noto

A chance meeting with an HRE pioneer led to a long and successful career

By John B. Mugford

Since longtime healthcare real estate (HRE) executive Michael A. “Mike” Noto began sporting a full beard a few years ago, he has gotten a lot of good-natured ribbing from colleagues who have noted his striking resemblance to the “most interesting man in the world” – the character from those popular Dos Equis beer commercials. As someone who is known for a ready sense of humor, Mr. Noto has laughed right along with the joke.

So is he the most interesting man in the world? Maybe. But Mr. Noto, who retired in summer 2018 from his senior-level post with the nation’s largest healthcare real estate investment trust (REIT), Welltower Inc., certainly qualifies as one of the most interesting – and accomplished – executives in the world of HRE.

For his long and storied career, and all of his contributions to the sector, Mr. Noto is the recipient of the 2018 HREI Insights Award™ for Lifetime Achievement.

Now that he is retired and living with his wife, Carol, near the beach in Jupiter, Fla., Mr. Noto has been able to improve his golf game by a few strokes, relax at his cabin in the Georgia mountains, spend more time with his family and grandchild, and read more books than he used to.

This enjoyment is well earned, as Mr. Noto certainly had a full – very full, in fact – career. For many years, he was known as having one of the best, if not the best, attendance records at the HRE sector’s numerous conferences nationwide.

“I did go to a lot of them, and was a panelist on a lot of panel sessions,” says Mr. Noto, who has always been quick with a greeting, a smile and good conversation, be it work-related or personal.

“It was a lot of travel, but I enjoyed the conferences and seeing everyone there, which was good for business and for building relationships.”

A chance meeting changed his career path

Early in his work life, there were no indications that Mr. Noto was headed for a career in HRE. In fact, it was because of his friendship and working relationship with one of the sector’s pioneering developers that Mr. Noto got involved in the business in the first place.

As he was facing a potential burnout from working long hours – typically six days a week – in building a law practice in New York in the 1980s and ‘90s, Mr. Noto, who had been in commercial lending prior to becoming an attorney, moved his family to Palm Beach County, Fla., to be closer to Carol’s parents.

It wasn’t long after the move that Mr. Noto, who set up shop with a new law practice in Palm Beach County, became friends with a fellow Little League coach. That individual was someone who would change the path of his career in a way that he never could have foreseen, and that brought him great joy and satisfaction.

That man was a pioneer in the HRE sector, longtime medical office building (MOB) developer Bruce A. Rendina. Mr. Rendina began developing and owning on-campus medical office buildings (MOBs) in South Florida in the 1980s and turned his company, now known as Rendina Healthcare Real Estate, into a national player.

Initially, Mr. Noto simply provided legal services for Rendina. But, in the late 1990s, Mr. Rendina talked Mr. Noto into leaving his law practice to lead the property management arm of Mr. Rendina’s company.

“Bruce was pretty persistent during that time in asking me to run his management company, Paramount,” Mr. Noto recalls. “At the time, I was looking for something to excite me again. I joined the company when the portfolio had about 35 buildings.”

The business, as well as the friendship between Messrs. Rendina and Noto, continued to grow during the next few years. In 2005, however, Mr. Rendina received some tragic news: he had brain cancer. Despite his healthcare team’s best efforts, Mr. Rendina passed away in 2006.

Even before Mr. Rendina’s death, the company’s strategy had switched from one of growth to one of selling its MOB portfolio, a move designed to give Bruce’s sons, Richard, David and Michael, the option to either start a new venture or “rebuild the MOB development company,” Mr. Noto recalls. “And that’s what they did, with Richard leading what is a very fine company today.”

In 2006-07, Rendina sold its 49-MOB portfolio to Windrose Medical Properties Trust, which in turn was acquired by Toledo, Ohio-based Health Care REIT, now Welltower (NYSE: WELL). Health Care REIT, which had long focused on senior housing, had decided to enter the MOB sector and did so with the properties once owned by Rendina as well as others that Windrose had accumulated. George Chapman, the former CEO of Health Care REIT looked to Mr. Noto and his team to help it enter the MOB arena.

During Mr. Noto’s time with Welltower, the REIT grew its MOB portfolio to 250 assets by making acquisitions and developing properties through its numerous joint venture (JV) partnerships. Mr. Noto, with his numerous HRE sector connections and relationships – which were undoubtedly established and expanded during the many HRE conferences he attended – not only managed the portfolio but helped source acquisition and development opportunities for the REIT.

Richard Rendina, CEO of the Rendina, is a big admirer of Mr. Noto.

“Mike was always tenacious and dedicated to his craft, whether it was as a lawyer, a banker, a real estate executive or a coach. He led by example,” Mr. Rendina says.

A ‘growing, changing’ industry

That dedication to his craft had Mr. Noto on the road a lot during his two decades in the HRE sector. As noted earlier, in addition to his travels for Rendina and Welltower, where he was senior VP of real estate services, Mr. Noto was known for having one of the best, if not the best, attendance records at the HRE sector’s numerous conferences nationwide.

“I did go to a lot of them, and was a panelist on a lot of panel sessions,” says Mr. Noto, who has always been quick with a greeting, a smile and good conversation, be it work-related or personal. “It was a lot of travel, but I enjoyed the conferences and seeing everyone there, which was good for business and for building relationships.”

“It’s been quite a run,” Mr. Noto tells HREI™. “I started out in this business working for a great privately owned developer and owner – Bruce is tops on the list of people I have to thank. I finished my career working for a large, publicly traded REIT that provided me and my team with the resources and freedom to grow as best we could.”

Since Mr. Noto attended HRE conferences and participated in panel discussions too numerous to count, it was perhaps fitting that he was able to accept his Lifetime Achievement Award at one of those events, the RealShare Healthcare conference in Scottdale, Ariz. On Dec. 6, 2018, before a packed HREI Insights Awards™ luncheon, Mr. Noto addressed the crowd upon accepting the award.

“I am extremely grateful, honored and humbled to accept this award, especially when I look at the names of the previous honorees, who are giants in this industry” he said, adding thanks to his family. Although his wife, Carol, was unable to attend due to health issues, several of his family members were in the audience, including his eight-year-old granddaughter, along with numerous colleagues.

“And I want to thank Bruce Rendina, a true pioneer in this industry and someone who told me that after 19 years as an attorney I should get into the business of healthcare real estate instead of doing work for his healthcare real estate company as an attorney,” Mr. Noto said, recalling his friend and colleague.

“I am forever grateful that he encouraged me to enter this wonderful business and gave me the support to thrive,” Mr. Noto said. Mr. Rendina was a previous HREI Insights™ Lifetime Achievement Award recipient who was selected posthumously for the honor in 2014.

Mr. Noto also thanked Mr. Chapman, the former Health Care REIT CEO.

“George hired me and our property management team from Rendina to help manage and grow the Health Care REIT MOB portfolio,” Mr. Noto recalled. “He showed great confidence in me and our team.”

“And I also want to thank the current Welltower CEO, Tom DeRosa, who is working tirelessly to merge the various components of healthcare into a single model of healthcare delivery. He truly is an innovator in this sector.”

As he wrapped up his address to the audience in Scottsdale, Mr. Noto noted that he hopes he can continue to contribute to the sector in various ways, including providing advice to those involved in the industry.

“The folks in our buildings, our users, are experiencing growing demand and we will continue to see this growing demand for the next 15 years or so,” he added. “The buildings in which care is delivered today have changed dramatically over the past 20 years, and the they will change dramatically over the next 20 years.

“That makes it imperative that all of you think of the future proactively,” he continued, “because the buildings that we manage, develop and own all contribute to the healing and well-being of our communities. That is very important and distinguishes us from other sectors.

“So think about that for a moment. We are involved in a sector that is growing, changing and doing good for people. None of us, including myself, could ask for a better place to carve out a career than in this business.”