The self-proclaimed ‘late bloomer’ was given HREI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022
John and Beth Sweet in February 2023, after John won the 2022 HREI Lifetime Achievement Award. (HREI photo)
MEQUON, Wis. – One of the healthcare real estate (HRE) sector’s best-known and most-respected professionals has passed away.
John Wheaton Sweet Jr., who was born in Springfield, Mass., and spent much of his adult life in Greater Milwaukee, died this past Sunday, Nov. 23. He was 81.
Although Mr. Sweet first became involved in HRE later in his career – starting in 2002 while in his late 50s – he certainly had a notable impact on the sector.
Mr. Sweet is perhaps best known in HRE for starting one of the sector’s most successful, prolific buyers and owners of medical outpatient buildings (MOBs): Milwaukee-based Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE: DOC), which, in the decade after its initial public offering (IPO) in mid-2013, built a nearly $6 billion portfolio of MOBs and became one of the best known and most highly regarded firms and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the business. Physicians Realty Trust and Healthpeak Properties merged in early 2024, forming a REIT trading on the NYSE as DOC – Physicians Realty Trust’s former ticker symbol.
A note shared with professionals at Healthpeak reads: “It is with great sadness that we share the passing of John W. Sweet, one of the original founders of Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE: DOC) and a remarkable leader whose vision, leadership, and generosity helped shape the healthcare real estate industry. John passed away peacefully (Sunday) at the age of 81, surrounded by his family.”
In an interview in 2023, after he was named an HREI Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Mr. Sweet said, “I had a good career for a long time,” noting that he was with several firms before getting involved in the HRE space, including working for Milwaukee-based B.C. Ziegler & Company, a specialty investment bank, in the late 1990s.
But then, in 2002, Fred Klipsch – well-known for his firm, Klipsch Group Inc., a maker of high-end speakers and other audio equipment – recruited Mr. Sweet to help launch and co-found an MOB-focused REIT, Nashville, Tenn.-based Windrose Medical Properties.
After helping to launch Windrose, Mr. Sweet was recruited back to Ziegler in 2004-05 to start a specialty fund focused on investing in MOBs. It was during that time that Mr. Sweet met Mark D. Theine, eventually recruiting him to help launch and operate Ziegler Healthcare Real Estate Funds.
During the next eight years or so, Messrs. Sweet and Theine, and others, built the Ziegler MOB portfolio before deciding to use it to seed the launch of Physicians Realty Trust in 2013.
In reflecting on the passing away of the person he called his “mentor,” Mr. Theine tells HREI: “John’s leadership and vision helped shape Physicians Realty Trust and the broader healthcare real estate industry. He changed countless lives through his mentorship and generosity, and he leaves behind a great legacy and a lot of laughs from his wonderfully witty sense of humor.”
Prior to the IPO, Mr. Sweet recruited John T. Thomas from Health Care REIT, now Welltower (NYSE: WELL), to lead the new REIT. Mr. Thomas served as president and CEO until the merger with Healthpeak, where he is now vice chair. Mr. Theine was the executive VP of asset management with Physicians Realty Trust and is now senior VP of outpatient medical with Healthpeak.
During Mr. Sweet’s tenure with Physicians Realty Trust, where he served as the chief investment officer from 2013 until his retirement in 2017, the REIT grew its portfolio from the original $125 million in assets to nearly $3 billion.
In the 2023 HREI article that focused on Mr. Sweet, Mr. Theine said that what “defined John Sweet’s career (was his) work ethic and the genuine man that he has always been… John has treated me like a true partner every step of the way, beginning when we met and created the Ziegler Healthcare Real Estate Funds and through the DOC IPO in 2013. That has continued through today, as he remains a mentor offering advice as the DOC team and MOB portfolio continue to grow.”
Contacted this week by HREI, Mr. Thomas added: “John Sweet was an icon in our industry, as co-founder of two public REITs focused on outpatient care, but, more importantly, he changed the lives of so many, no one more than Mark Theine and me, and everyone else he mentored, led and partnered with.”
According to an obituary posted Monday to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website, Mr. Sweet “enjoyed spending time on the golf course, grilling his favorite meals and being surrounded by his family. Those close to him will especially remember his humor, his faith and the steadfast support he so freely gave.”
He is survived by his wife, Beth; his children, Christine (Jonathan) Bryant, John (Elizabeth), Michael (Whitney), and Emily (Kyler) Tolefree; and his cherished grandchildren (Andrew, Megan, Jack, Mary, Kennedy, and Keaton).
The obituary notes that a “private funeral mass will be held for John’s family and a celebration of life … at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to The Wisconsin Humane Society, a cause meaningful to John.”
To read HREI’s 2023 article about John Sweet, please click here. (Subscription required)
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