Lakewood Ranch office sold for nearly $32M in off-market deal

A Lakewood Ranch medical office building was recently acquired in an off-market deal for $31.8 million. 

The price represented a nearly 42% premium over the most-recent official Sarasota County assessment of the building, at at 6600 University Parkway, which was for $22.4 million.

The seller of the building, Center Point Medical Center, is Casto Center Point Phase II LLC, which paid $2.2 million for the property in 2019, Sarasota County property records show. Casto is a prolific builder in the region, having built Center Point at Waterside, among several other mixed-use projects.  

A representative for Casto, the Lakewood Ranch-based real estate firm that developed the property, says the April 30 sale was the culmination of a months-long process. Charlottesville, Virginia-based Anchor Healthcare Properties bought the building. 

“We sold the building to Anchor Healthcare Properties after months of discussion. Anchor is [the] well-established owner of a portfolio of medical related properties,” Brett Hutchens, partner in Casto Southeast Realty Services, says in an email. “We are formulating a larger relationship with Anchor, and the acquisition of the Center Point MOB [medical office building] was an initial step into what we feel will be a good long-term relationship in the medical office field.”

Anchor Health specializes in medical outpatient buildings and specialty health care facilities. The company issued a press release on the acquisition, but officials did not respond to a request for comment on the purchase, the over-assessment price paid or its strategy in the market.

Spanning more than 70,000 square feet, Center Point Medical Center in Lakewood Ranch was constructed in 2020 and is 100% occupied, according to a statement from Anchor Health. Tenants include the Cancer Center of Sarasota-Manatee, Lakewood Ranch Medical Group Primary Care, Venas Vascular Specialists, BioSpine Institute and Fresenius Kidney Care, among others. An ambulatory surgery center run by physician-owned Advanced Surgery Center of Sarasota will be built out “in the near term” with two operating rooms for orthopedic, podiatry, joint replacement and spinal surgery procedures, according to the statement.

“As the health care delivery model continues to place a greater emphasis on outpatient services, multi-specialty MOBs anchored by an ambulatory surgery center or similar high acuity function are continually in demand as regional providers look to expand their patient base within the communities they serve,” Anchor partner and Senior Vice President of Investments Elliott Sellers says in the statement. “We look forward to working with some of the preeminent clinical medical groups in the Sun Coast.”

To purchase the medical office building, Anchor partnered with BGO, a New York-based real estate investment firm, through a recently launched joint venture.

“This new acquisitions joint venture program with BGO is a testament to the Anchor operating platform and our ability to continue to source creative, off-market investment opportunities in a time of challenging capital markets,” Anchor Health Properties CEO Ben Ochs says in a statement.

Center Point Medical Center was an attractive purchase, according to the statement, in part due to its location within Lakewood Ranch and its proximity to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.

“This acquisition is highly complementary to BGO’s investment approach in seeking high-acuity and high-quality outpatient MOBs in affluent and growth-oriented markets,” says Kevin Yen, principal, investments with BGO.

Anchor Health Properties will provide asset and property management services at Center Point Medical Center, according to the statement. It appears to be the first property for the company, which manages more than 9 million square feet of health care facilities, in Sarasota.

“The attractive Sarasota MSA has a high concentration of hospital campuses, health systems and private physician groups. Building on this, the facility has a tremendous presence within the Lakewood Ranch community and is the newest medical outpatient building in the submarket," Rob Rumer, investments manager with Anchor, says in the statement. “This tremendous opportunity and investment is a result of targeting quality outpatient health care assets in key markets where we can add scale and density."