Flagship Expands North Carolina Presence

By Eric Althoff

HICKORY, N.C.—Healthcare real estate player Flagship Healthcare Properties has extended its holdings in the Tarheel State with yet another acquisition, this time three medical office buildings (MOB) totaling nearly 90,000 square feet of medical use space.  The property is located in Hickory, which is about 60 miles north of downtown Charlotte, where Flagship’s operations are based.

Flagship purchased the trio of MOBs through its subsidiary, Flagship Healthcare Trust, which is the company’s private real estate investment arm.  Flagship will provide property management and asset management services as the buildings’ brand-new owner.

The trio of MOBs currently has an overall occupancy of 96 percent, Flagship announced, with such long-standing tenants including the Veteran’s Administration Hickory Outpatient Clinic, which caters to the primary and specialized care for veterans in the area.  Other tenants at the MOBs include A Woman’s View, whose specialties include obstetrics and gynecology, as well as laboratory services.  Among the other healthcare tenants are the offices of Frye Regional Medical Center, which is owned by Duke LifePoint Healthcare.  Frye’s offices at the MOB in Hickory provide patient care in subspecialties such as behavioral health, internal medicine and pulmonary services.

In a statement regarding the acquisition, Gerald Quattlebaum, executive vice president of acquisitions at Flagship, said that his firm is thrilled to be increasing its share of the healthcare sector in the firm’s “home market” of the greater Charlotte region.

“Hickory has a strong healthcare market that serves a sizable population in the northwest area of North Carolina,” Quattlebaum said.  “These medical office properties are ideally situated in close proximity to important hospital services and surrounding patient populations.”

Financing for the deal was made possible by First Horizon Bank.

Flagship’s private real estate investment trust, Flagship Healthcare Trust, Inc., maintains ownership of 1.6 million square feet of healthcare assets at over 60 properties, with a collective value of some $450 million, the firm announced.  Other properties the firm has recently acquired in North Carolina include an ambulatory surgery center, also in Hickory, as well as a surgery center in Charlotte.