Healthcare Trust Buys Medical Office Building for $54M

by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Healthcare Trust of America recently purchased the eight-story Penn Avenue Place office building for $54 million. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the seller is Penn Avenue Place Associates LP, led by Steven J. Guy.

Healthcare Trust of America told the newspaper that the acquisition will not have an impact on the property’s existing tenants. Highmark Inc. occupies more than 90 percent of the building’s total 557,559 square feet and has an extended lease term until 2021. Rite Aid is also a tenant at the property.

The Tribune-Review reports this is the company’s third purchase of a medical office-type building in Pittsburgh. In April 2010 Healthcare Trust of America paid $40.6 million to purchase the 191,612-square-foot Federal North Medical Office, a four-story facility that includes 525 parking spaces. Later in 2010, the company purchased the 228,870-square-foot West Penn Allegheny Building, for $39 million.

In regional news, the Iceoplex at Southpointe, best known as one of Pittsburgh Penguins’ practice facilities, is for sale. The property is listed on LoopNet.com, an online site for commercial real estate. The asking price for the 65,000-square-foot special-use building is $11 million. According to the ObserverReporter, Jay’s Sports Bar, a 300-seat restaurant located at 114 Southpointe Boulevard, is also included in the price.

The facility features an ice rink, as well as a 17,000-square-foot multi-purpose area which can be used for soccer and lacrosse in the fall and winter, and basketball and volleyball in the spring and summer. The building may also be used as a junior convention center: approximately 40,000 square feet of space are available for trade shows, expositions or corporate events.

Iceoplex was built in 1995 by Pittsburgh Penguins former owners Howard Baldwin, Morris Belzberg and Tom Ruta, the newspaper reports. In 2001 Southpointe Rink Associates purchased the property in the aftermath of a bankruptcy filing.