New firm brings together several former HTA executives and GI Partners
By John B. Mugford
Robert Milligan
After being founded as a non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) initially known as Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT in 2006, the same entity became Healthcare Trust of America (HTA) after going public in 2012.
During the next decade or so, the Scottsdale-based, publicly traded REIT, went on quite a run. By the time it was acquired by and merged into Nashville, Tenn.-based Healthcare Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: HR) in mid-2022, HTA had accumulated a portfolio of about 25 million square feet of medical office building (MOB) space throughout the country.
In the aftermath of the headline-grabbing, big-time merger with Healthcare Realty, not much was heard from some of the former core members of the HTA team, many of whom had helped build what at one time was the sector’s largest MOB portfolio.
Until late 2023, that is, when several members of the former HTA team announced a new venture focusing on MOB investment.
That venture is Scottsdale-based UDLR Healthcare, a partnership of a number of former HTA executives and Scottsdale-based GI Partners, an investment firm focused on alternative assets that has “raised more than $42 billion in capital and invests on behalf of leading institutional investors around the world through its private equity, real estate and data infrastructure strategies.”
The former HTA executives involved in UDLR comprise Robert Milligan, the CEO and former longtime chief financial officer (CFO) with HTA, as well as Todd Sloan, Olivia Waalboer, Jeff Spiller, and Austin Brooker. They represent a “cross-functional team of former HTA executives with extensive experience in MOB investing, asset management, property operations, and construction and design.”
GI Partners, which was founded in 2001, is a private investment firm with more than 150 employees and offices in Scottsdale; San Francisco; New York; Dallas; Chicago; Greenwich, Conn.; and London.
According to a news release announcing the launching of UDLR Healthcare in late 2023, the firm noted that the “platform actively seeks investment opportunities in high-quality medical outpatient buildings across key markets, with a focus on delivering value to both healthcare providers and investors.”
UDLR adds that its “mission is to become a leading innovator, investor, and operator in medical outpatient real estate. The company aims to create alignment across all sector stakeholders via partnerships with leading health systems and physicians. Led by a seasoned management team with experience investing and operating a portfolio of MOBs at scale, UDLR Healthcare utilizes data driven analysis and a deep understanding of value creation for MOB stakeholders to provide innovative real estate solutions to healthcare providers and patients.”
The investment platform made its first acquisition in late December, when it closed on the value-add purchase of a 93,000 square foot MOB in Glendale, Ariz., for $13.5 million, according to information from HRE data firm RevistaMed. The MOB is on the campus of the 561-bed Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, part of Phoenix-based Banner Health, which operates more than 30 hospitals and was the seller of the multi-tenant facility.
The four-story Thunderbird Medical Pavilion was built in 1984 and was 50 percent leased at the time of the sale, with Banner being the anchor tenant sharing the building with a number of other large and local physician groups. UDLR intends to embark soon on a multi-million dollar renovation of the MOB.
HREI™ recently caught up with Mr. Milligan, the CEO.
HREI: To start with, congratulations on the formation of UDLR Healthcare. Can you tell us how it all came together, and perhaps why it came together?
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