Companies & People: From brokerage to the principal side

Longtime HRE broker Lee Asher discusses his move to buying assets for Kayne Anderson

By John B. Mugford

For the past 14 years or so, Lee Asher has been a well-known and highly successful broker of healthcare real estate (HRE) facilities, with a big focus on medical outpatient buildings (MOBs).

While serving as the co-founder and vice chair of the Healthcare & Life Sciences Capital Markets team with CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE: CBRE) from 2009 to early 2023, and through his time as the vice chair and leader of the Healthcare Capital Markets Practice with Colliers International Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CIGI) until late 2023, Mr. Asher was involved in sales or recapitalizations of more than 72 million square feet of space and deals totaling about $24 billion.

Earlier this year – on March 4, to be precise — Mr. Asher made the move from brokerage to the other side of the business, the principal, or acquisitions and ownership, side.

He has joined what is likely the most-prolific private buyer of HRE facilities – with a heavy emphasis on medical outpatient buildings (MOBs) – in becoming senior managing director and head of medical office real estate with Boca Raton, Fla.-based Kayne Anderson Real Estate, which has partnered with Chicago-based Remedy Medical Properties to accumulate a portfolio of about 30 million square feet of space.

Even during the current industry-wide slowdown in MOB transactions, the Remedy-Kayne partnership continues to be a prolific buyer, averaging about $1 billion annually in acquisitions in recent years.

In making the move to Kayne Anderson, Mr. Asher has also made the move from Atlanta to the Boca Raton area along the Atlantic Coast.

We caught up with Mr. Asher to chat about his new role with Kayne Anderson, what he considers to be the difference, or similarities, of being on the sales side and the principal side of the business, as well as his thoughts on the current state of the market and where it’s headed, and some other topics.