Elliot LaBreche and Abigail Kind Advise on $7 million Acquisition of North Charleston Medical Office Building

Elliot LaBreche and Abigail Kind negotiate seller lease-back from institutional buyer

Elliot LaBreche and Abigail Kind arranged the sale of a 27,000-square-foot medical office building in North Charleston, South Carolina to a publicly traded health care REIT for $7 million. The off-market transaction closed July 29.  The seller, Charleston Oncology, will remain in the building as a tenant and pay rent to the new owner, Global Medical REIT.  With 11 physicians, Charleston Oncology is one of the largest oncology and hematology practice in South Carolina.  Bethesda, Maryland-based Global Medical REIT is one of the largest health care REITs in the U.S.

LaBreche and Kind advised both parties in the transaction.

The two-story office building is located at 2910 Tricom Street adjacent to Trident Medical Center.  It serves as the headquarters for the physician-owned practice which has four other locations in the Charleston region.  The doctors owned the building for several years, but desired to divest the asset to focus on growing the practice.

“Charleston Oncology wanted to sell, but only if they could achieve a $7-million valuation,” said LaBreche.  “The only way to make the deal work was for Charleston Oncology to sign a long-term sale lease-back with the new owner. The practice gets an infusion of new capital to fuel future growth, and Global Medical REIT, secures a credit tenant with long-term cash flow.”

“In January 2021 Elliot and Abbe approached us about the potential sale of our headquarters building in North Charleston,” said Dr. Julia Saylors, one of the managing physicians. “By structuring a sale lease-back, we were able to retain control of our building long-term but turn over day-to-day management over to someone else. This way, we can focus on growing our practice and improving patient outcomes.”

This is the second time in two months that LaBreche and Kind have advised Global Medical REIT on an acquisition.  On June 2, LaBreche and Kind brokered the sale of a 32,758-square-foot medical office building in Tallahassee, Florida for $9 million. LaBreche’s team has more than $57 million worth of medical office deals under contract and expects to close over $100 million by the end of 2021.

“Medical office buildings, once a niche in commercial real estate, are becoming a favored asset class by institutional investors because of their resiliency to down cycles,” said LaBreche.  “As a result, the demand for product is skyrocketing and driving up prices across the country.”