$2 billion Tampa REIT pays $29 million for Arkansas hospital

Just weeks after getting listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Sila Realty Trust has bought a 50-bed rehabilitation facility in Arkansas.

The purchase is the latest for the Tampa health care real estate investment trust, which has bought eight properties for a total of $164 million thus far this year.

This latest buy was of an inpatient patient rehabilitation facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Sila paid $28.5 million for the property.

According to a statement from the firm, the 50-bed Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital serves people recovering from strokes, brain injuries, neurological conditions, trauma, spinal cord injuries, amputations and orthopedic injuries.

The 62,570-square-foot center was built in 2021 and is leased to the hospital, a joint venture between Mercy Hospital Fort Smith and Lifepoint Health, says Sila.

Sila is a Tampa-based “pure play” net lease health care REIT. It has a more than $2 billion portfolio that, as of July 29, is made up 138 properties and two undeveloped land parcels located in 65 markets across the U.S.

The company was previously known as Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT and Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT II before merging to become Sila in 2019.

In 2021, the company made the strategic decision to focus solely on the health care sector, selling off a 29-property data center portfolio for $1.32 billion. The firm used the proceeds, in part, to pay off $854 million in debt.

Sila’s president and CEO Michael Seton told the Business Observer in June that one reason for selling off the portfolio was that investors like companies that concentrate on a single sector.

“It's defensive, but it's growing,” he says of the health care sector.

While Sila has been a public company for years, Seton says being listed on the NYSE will help it raise capital to help it grow its portfolio.