CIT Group Provides $21M Loan for MOB Portfolio

501 College Ave. Image courtesy of Ridgeline Capital Partners

CIT Group Inc. has provided financing for Ridgeline Capital Partners’ acquisition of an approximately 100,000-square-foot portfolio of medical facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. CIT’s Healthcare Finance unit acted as the sole lead arranger on the $21 million loan.

READ ALSO: Medical Office Buildings Poised for Quick Recovery

Ridgeline purchased the portfolio from SNG Realty LP, according to Tarrant County Appraisal District records. The group of assets consists of nine high-quality properties, including 501 College Ave. in Fort Worth, Texas, a roughly 18,000-square-foot building that first opened its doors in 2010. All nine properties are 100 percent triple-net leased, with affiliates of dialysis center operator U.S. Renal Care occupying the majority of the collection’s square footage. The financing agreement extends beyond the acquisition loan, as CIT is also providing Ridgeline with treasury management and capital markets services.

Strong bet

As Ridgeline notes in a press release, the newly acquired portfolio features tenants providing medical services that are needed in veritably any economic environment, and dialysis tenants have an estimated historic 99 percent tenant retention rate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, dialysis centers have remained open while also expanding home dialysis offerings, according to a report by health-care transaction advisory firm VMG Health. However, even with change afoot in the industry in the form of increased home-based care, kidney-treatment centers, like other essential medical office property types, are expected to emerge from the global health crisis relatively unscathed.

“Despite temporary non-essential medical office closures, the sector is poised for a quick recovery,” according to a report by Matthews Real Estate Investment Services. “With a growing aging population combined with expanding medical insurance coverage and new treatment options, this equates to an increasing demand for medical office space and is considered a defensive industry.”

CIT’s financing deal with Ridgeline marks the second publicized transaction of 2020 for the national banking concern’s Healthcare Finance unit, which is part of its Commercial Finance division. In February, CIT served as lead arranger of $93.7 million in combined financing for 19 health-care facilities on behalf of a venture between New Generation Health LLC and Genesis Healthcare Inc., including a $74.7 million senior secured credit facility for New Gen’s acquisition of seven Genesis health-care facilities.