By Joshua Burd
Summit Medical Group has sold its flagship 270,000-square-foot medical office campus in Berkeley Heights, where it is now a tenant as part of a sale-leaseback agreement.
Brokers with JLL represented Summit Medical in the sale of the six-building, 43-acre campus just north of Interstate 78. Welltower Inc., a real estate investment trust, acquired the property for $140 million, under a transaction that was slated to close in the third quarter.
The sale is helping facilitate and was conditioned upon Summit’s recently announced merger with urgent care chain CityMD, which was finalized in mid-August.
“The merger of Summit Medical and CityMD is the latest example of how Welltower is facilitating and financing new models in health care delivery,” said Thomas J. DeRosa, Welltower’s chairman and CEO. “This landmark transaction will create a physician-centric, consumer-oriented integrated delivery system that will improve access, quality and lower cost of care in one of the nation’s most populated regions.”
JLL’s Jose Cruz, Ben Appel and Mark West completed the transaction.
Summit Medical Group, which is headquartered at the campus at 1 Diamond Hill Road, will continue to occupy its space under a new 20-year, absolute net lease, Welltower said in a news release. The property is the largest and most comprehensive of Summit’s five hub campuses and will bring Welltower’s total Summit-leased footprint to more than 500,000 square feet.
“With this transaction, SMG is pleased to expand its relationship with Welltower to another one of our key medical practice locations,” said Dr. Jeffrey Le Benger, Summit Medical Group’s chairman and CEO.
