Welltower has significantly expanded its South Florida healthcare real estate portfolio, spending approximately $386 million on nine nursing and rehabilitation facilities across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

One of the transactions involved Glades West Rehab & Nursing Center at 15955 Bass Creek Road in Miramar, where a Welltower affiliate paid at least $49.1 million for the 120-bed skilled nursing facility.

The 86,009-square-foot property sits on approximately 3.7 acres west of Interstate 75 and was completed in 2015. The transaction equates to roughly $409,000 per bed based on the recorded purchase price.

Brooklyn-based TL Management, led by David Katz, managed the selling entity. The Miramar transaction marked the property’s first sale since it was developed.

But Glades West was only one piece of a considerably larger South Florida acquisition program.

Welltower initially acquired three Broward County nursing facilities for a combined $160 million, followed by two Palm Beach County properties totaling $48.2 million.

The Broward transactions included the Wilton Manors Health & Rehab Center, which sold for $58.7 million, and the Fort Lauderdale Health & Rehabilitation Center, acquired for $52.2 million, in addition to Glades West.

In Palm Beach County, Welltower acquired the Terraces of Lake Worth Care Center for $29.9 million and North Lake Care Center and Rehabilitation in Lake Park for $19.1 million.

The healthcare REIT subsequently continued its buying spree in Miami-Dade County.

Welltower affiliates paid a combined $142.7 million for three additional nursing and rehabilitation facilities: Unity Health and Rehabilitation Center in Miami, Palms Care Center and Rehab in Lauderdale Lakes and North Beach Rehabilitation Center in North Miami Beach.

The largest of those acquisitions was the 294-bed Unity Health and Rehabilitation Center at 1442 NW 22nd Street in Miami, which sold for $74.3 million.

Palms Care Center and Rehab, a 120-bed property at 3370 NW 47th Terrace in Lauderdale Lakes, traded for approximately $45 million, while the 99-bed North Beach Rehabilitation Center at 2201 NE 170th Street in North Miami Beach sold for $23.45 million.

Combined with another Hialeah acquisition, the transactions bring Welltower’s recent South Florida nursing-home purchases to nine properties and approximately $386 million.

The scale of the activity is notable for South Florida’s healthcare real estate market. Rather than acquiring individual facilities opportunistically, Welltower appears to be assembling a substantial regional portfolio of skilled nursing and rehabilitation properties across all three counties.

The acquisitions also come as institutional investors continue to increase their exposure to senior housing and care-related real estate, supported by Florida’s aging population and improving operating fundamentals across portions of the senior-care sector.

For South Florida, Welltower’s nearly $400 million commitment provides another indication that large healthcare real estate investors continue to view the region’s demographic growth as a long-term driver of demand for skilled nursing, rehabilitation and senior-care facilities.

Source: SFBJ