Weekly Health Care Real Estate Briefing: Diversified Healthcare Trust to Merge with Office Properties Income Trust I Optum Becomes A Lender To Physician Practice Groups I New Hospital Construction Cost Data

Diversified Healthcare Trust (DHC) will merge with Office Properties Income Trust (OPI) in an all-stock transaction. DHC owns 379 health care properties valued at an estimated $7.1 billion. OPI owns 160 general office properties with a $577 million market cap.
Optum is now in the business of providing loans to physician practice groups. This is another way Optum is taking steps to align with physician practice groups.
Building Design and Construction published new hospital construction cost data. The average cost to construct a new three-story, general acute-care hospital is $419.18 per square foot. The most expensive cities to construct a hospital are New York at $540.45 per sf, Chicago at $494.76 per sf and Boston at $479.38 per sf.
NPR published new data on the U.S. states that have the highest tax burdens on individuals. The data looked at income tax rates, property tax rates and sales tax rates. The states with the highest tax burden are New York (12.47%), Hawaii (12.31%), Maine (11.14%), Vermont (10.28%) and Connecticut (9.83%).
Behavioral Health Business published an article on the impact of certificate of need (CON) laws on developing new behavioral health care facilities. In some cases, it can take twelve months and up to $500,000 to secure a CON, according to the article.
A Georgia hospital system announced plans to spend $55 million to develop a mixed-use project near its campus. The project is designed to address a nursing shortage at the hospital system. The project will include clinical nursing space for a technical college and housing for nursing students.
Six Minnesota health systems, including Essentia Health, have partnered with the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund to study the relationship between housing and health care. Essentia has participated in three housing projects over the past few years.
St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, announced plans to build a 63,000 sq ft, 80-bed behavioral health hospital with construction beginning in late 2023. The project is expected to cost $37 million.
Atlanta’s mayor recently issued a new executive order to maintain the ban on redeveloping the former Atlanta Medical Center. The mayor wants to ensure any future development includes health care to benefit the surrounding community. He ordered the City Planning Department to refuse recent rezoning and building project applications for the property.
The former University Medical Center in Fresno, California, is up for sale again after negotiations with several prospective buyers were unsuccessful. The asking price is $6 million. The hospital has been vacant since it closed in 2007.
CommonSpirit Health, the second largest nonprofit hospital system in the U.S., is recruiting for the following real estate positions: System Director Real Estate Planning, Division Director Real Estate Planning, System Manager Ambulatory Planning and System Manager Real Estate Strategy.