In less than a year, Milwaukee-based health care real estate company
Landmark Healthcare Facilities LLC has brought on two new top executives to lead the company.
In September, the company announced that D. Deeni Taylor had been named chairman and chief executive officer, succeeding Landmark’s founder,
Joe Checota, who became executive chairman.
Taylor had previously served as executive vice president and chief investment officer for Milwaukee-based health care real estate investment trust
Physicians Realty Trust and then as senior vice president and head of strategic relationships for Denver-based
Healthpeak Properties Inc., which acquired Physicians Realty Trust in 2024.
On Monday, Landmark Healthcare Facilities announced that
Dan Brandt, who previously served as senior vice president of commercial real estate for
Old National Bank, had been named chief financial officer.
Landmark Healthcare Facilities develops, owns and manages health care facilities. In addition to its Milwaukee headquarters, the company has regional offices in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia. The company has 33 buildings in its portfolio, including 13 in the Midwest, but none in Wisconsin, according to its website.
In an exclusive interview, BizTimes Media editor Andrew Weiland spoke with Taylor and Brandt about their growth plans for the company:
Dan, tell me why you wanted to join the organization at this time for this role.
Brandt: “Landmark was a client of Old National. I got to know the company through them. Deeni joined last year. I had been familiar with Physicians and Landmark both before then. What was intriguing about the opportunity for me was the fact that you had two individuals with a ton of experience in the medical office space being Deeni and Joe (Checota) looking to build Landmark up again with new development opportunities across the U.S. I really have always had more of an entrepreneurial perspective, just in general. I’ve always had, even though I’ve been in banking, some of my own real estate holdings and stuff like that, more on the multifamily side. It was always intriguing to me to kind of look at an opportunity to grow with an organization as we continue to take on new projects and expand the team here.”
Deeni, tell me a little about why Dan was somebody you wanted to bring into the fold.
Taylor: “It was around the beginning of the year when I first met Dan when we were going through some stuff with Old National Bank and he was really the lead for our account. My first impression was just how he handled himself with us as a client and really being creative in some things we were working on. Then the more we talked about it it became obvious he had enough background to understand how to assess capital, how to pursue capital and all of those kinds of things that we anticipate needing as we grow the company. So we started talking. One of the things that I think is important that will differentiate Landmark going forward is to have a person in the CFO position that can communicate clearly and positively with CFOs in hospitals and health systems, our clients. It was obvious Dan had that capability. All of those pieces came together for us to say if we’re gonna grow with that client base, besides myself, I need somebody that can really interact with the financial side of our clients. And that’s what it led to.”
I think one of the things that's interesting about Landmark is, it's a very substantial business, but I think in the Milwaukee community in the general public, and maybe also in the business community to a lesser extent but I think it's true as well, Landmark has for a long time flown under the radar in town. I think it's gotten a lot more attention in recent years with Joe Checota's philanthropy. He's been so active on the philanthropic side, a lot of people are saying, 'where did this come from?' And it's Landmark. I'm just curious about what you guys have planned to grow the business going forward. Are you going to be developing facilities in Wisconsin or the Milwaukee area? What are your growth plans and strategies going forward from here?
Taylor: “You’re exactly correct as it relates to the business. I’ve known Joe a long time. I've known Landmark a long time, competed with them back 20 years ago. Joe’s approach clearly was to stay under the radar. And he was successful doing that. Things have changed. The market’s changed. Hospitals and health systems have different challenges at this point. And our competitors are different. And the approach that I am pushing us is to not to be under the radar but to really take a lead position and be visible and sought after by our clients. And that’s the path we’re on. I think you’ll see more messaging through LinkedIn and the social media side as appropriate about the capabilities of Landmark. You will see us speaking at conferences, sharing expertise and our view of the markets. And you clearly will see us pursuing development opportunities in Wisconsin, in greater Milwaukee. So, I would tell you, stay tuned. I think there will be much more awareness of the business. It can only be a positive in really supporting and acknowledging the success that Joe has had in the past and, as you say, his real philanthropic position in Milwaukee. That’s the plan.”
Dan, what do you see from your point of view, as the growth opportunities for the company?
Brandt: “I echo some of Deeni’s comments. There is an emphasis for the company to grow. A lot of our leadership team and team members here in Milwaukee, and that has been the case historically but we also have offices in other parts of the country that service more of the real estate that we’ve developed. And I do think the goal to take a more active role in getting those connections here locally more established so that we do have some of those opportunities because we really haven’t done a lot of projects here in Wisconsin. I would say one of the approaches that we’re taking is kind of offering multiple structures to hospitals that give them options to evaluate that kind of give us some opportunity maybe to offer something different than what our competitors can oftentimes do, which is more of a traditional type of development structure. And so as we focus on growth, again we’re going to be looking to add folks here that we hope to have more connections within this community and the surrounding states as well. We have great relationships with some existing systems today but we certainly want to continue to expand those relationships with the different systems around the country and regionally.”
What is Joe (Checota’s) role with the company at this stage?
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Joe Checota[/caption]
Taylor: “It’s really important. His rolodex is unbelievable. Thirty years in this business. When you think about health care in general, but then talk about health care real estate, it’s a very small marketplace. And 30 years in this business, Joe knows just about everybody, or has interacted in some way with many, many health systems. And so he’s very important in either following up or opening a door that leads to an opportunity for the company. That’s one. Secondly, Joe is still the majority owner. So, he gives advice and I would say 99.9% very good advice for myself, Dan and others in the company, based on his experience and the success that he has had. And we seek that advice. He still comes to the office every day, interacts with all of us. I would tell you there’s a real affinity of the staff to know that Joe is still active in what we’re doing. We’re the ones who are the road warriors, having to go meet with the hospitals and the opportunities wherever they are, and that’s fine. Joe has earned every bit of the success he’s gotten. He can handle things from being in the office in Milwaukee while we’re out on the road, if that’s what we need to do.”
Do you have a growth goal, numerically, a certain number of new buildings a year? Any kind of target like that in mind?
Taylor: “I would tell you the way I’ve always looked at growth from a development standpoint, is how many buildings you start construction. Depending on the size and the market, it might take you 12 or up to 18 months to complete a building. I think we should be able to be in that range of three or more buildings starting construction on an annual basis. And then you’re just continually doing that. It may be more than that. I don’t think it will be less. It just becomes a function of the opportunities. One of the things that’s happening right now and we’re being successful is getting multiple buildings with the same client. Once you develop that relationship and they understand the capabilities and expertise and financial structures that we can provide it’s common to really get multiple opportunities with the same client and we’ve started that.”
I assume you see a lot of opportunity in the market and a lot of demand for health care facilities.
Tayor: “Yeah, it’s interesting. All of the press and everything that we hear, and it’s real, the challenge is the financial state of hospitals and health systems. However, those same organizations have waited to really open up buildings and new markets or protect existing markets, and they need new buildings. And so development has come back for hospitals and health systems as they look to expand or protect markets. Hospitals right now are actively looking at how to get buildings in markets where they need them, and that brings developers because the hospitals at the same time have a real challenge of where do they get capital to do it themselves.”
Anything else that I’m missing that you would like to add?
Brandt: “The interesting thing about the current environment, you look at health care and you look at office. Office is obviously taking its hits. That’s very clear. And the challenge is in a lot of cases capital sources such as banks and others, some of them lump office and medical office together. And that causes some challenges sometimes in finding capital or finding capital structures that make a lot of sense based on the risk you’re taking. A lot of the deals we’re looking at are single tenant types of situations with high credit type of entities that can go out and find their own financing in a lot of cases at very attractive rates. And sometimes you don’t always get that benefit from the different capital sources out there because I think they are dealing with their own challenges on office across the country. So when you talk to some of these capital sources they say all of the usual things, ‘we’re focused on industrial and multi-family’ and you can make a strong argument that medical office is at or lower risk than a lot of those asset classes. It just isn’t as well understood. So you do have to do more digging in trying to identify capital partners and that’s again going back to where Joe and Deeni’s relationships have been great. But they are still challenging. You’re still trying to pencil out the current construction costs at favorable yield on cost while dealing with interest rates that don’t always support what some of these assets are trading for once they’re done. So, you’re kind of bridging that gap between day one and getting to a point in time when the building is open for business so that you can restructure it into a longer-term deal.”
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Indiana University Health Neuroscience Center in Indianapolis. One of the buildings in Landmark Healthcare Facilities' portfolio.[/caption]
