- U.S. sale-leaseback volume rebounded in 2025, reaching $14.4B, fueled by a 56% surge in Q4 as corporate M&A activity regained momentum. Experts anticipate this trend will accelerate into 2026, as businesses, including health providers, use real estate monetization to unlock liquidity without the burden of traditional debt or equity dilution.
- A Modern Healthcare survey of more than 50 law firms predicts a significant rise in health care M&A through 2026, with an uptick expected in deals involving physician practices, home care and hospice services. This trend may point toward a shifting real estate landscape as organizations consolidate total physical footprints.
- The number of freestanding emergency rooms in Central Florida has grown from three in 2016 to over 37 today, driven by rapid population growth and the 2019 repeal of CON requirements. Major health systems like AdventHealth, Orlando Health and HCA Florida are leading this expansion, often using these facilities as a first step toward building full-service acute-care hospitals.
- Hall Render’s real estate and M&A attorneys will host a webinar on March 26, 2026, to discuss the legal and regulatory complexities of ASC transactions, including joint ventures and physician alignment strategies. The session is designed to provide health care executives and legal teams with actionable guidance on mitigating risk and ensuring compliance during due diligence and deal structuring.
- Big Sky Asset Management recently closed a $100M deal to acquire five health care real estate assets across Texas, totaling nearly 200,000 sf. The acquisitions include a mix of specialized facilities, such as a surgical hospital, an inpatient rehabilitation center and two ASCs focused on ophthalmology and gastroenterology.
- A recent article highlighted design strategies hospitals can use to remain operational during extreme weather events, including conducting regional risk assessments, strengthening the building envelope and utilizing prefabrication to reduce onsite vulnerabilities. Additionally, facilities can improve resilience by integrating on-site renewable energy, modeling downtime financial risks and prioritizing adaptable infrastructure in capital planning.
- A joint venture among Fulton County (GA), Grady Health System and the Grady Foundation has proposed building a new $900M full-service hospital to restore medical access following the closure of former Wellstar facilities. The real estate development plan follows a three-phase approach that includes an active freestanding medical clinic, a future medical office complex and the proposed hospital facility.
- Mississippi lawmakers passed a bill and sent it to Gov. Tate Reeves that would temporarily lift CON requirements for rural hospitals, allowing about 55 facilities to add new services or make improvements without prior state approval through June 2027. The legislation permits qualifying rural hospitals to open limited new facilities near their campuses, exceed existing spending thresholds for improvements and add geriatric psychiatric units.
- Tennessee lawmakers are considering legislation that would eliminate the state’s CON requirements for hospitals, removing regulatory approval for cardiac catheterization labs and freestanding EDs by 2027 and for acute-care hospitals by 2030. The bill follows multiple rural hospital closures that have left some counties without local hospital access.
- WellSpan Health has opened the first of three planned small-format hospitals in central Pennsylvania, with the initial facility located in York County and offering a 24-hour ED and 10 inpatient beds.
For more information, please contact:
- Andrew Dick at adick@hallrender.com or (317) 977-1491;
- Joel Swider at jswider@hallrender.com or (317) 429-3638; or
- Your primary Hall Render contact.
Hall Render blog posts and articles are intended for informational purposes only. For ethical reasons, Hall Render attorneys cannot—outside of an attorney-client relationship—answer specific questions that would be legal advice.
