Physicians Realty Trust made $1.3 billion in real estate purchases in 2016

Founder to retire from REIT

Milwaukee-based Physicians Realty Trust, a health care real estate investment trust, spent about $1.3 billion in 2016 on purchasing real estate assets.

The company disclosed today it completed 11 medical office facility purchases in the fourth quarter for $225 million, bringing its total to $1.28 billion of investments in 2016.

Physicians Realty Trust buys medical properties across the country and then leases them back to the health care practices occupying them. Founded in 2013, the company has been growing quickly. Its third quarter revenue was $70 million, up 101 percent from the third quarter of 2015.

- Advertisement -

“2016 was another record year of growth for Physicians Realty Trust, led by our investment in medical office facilities affiliated with Catholic Health Initiatives, but also many more investments with high quality health systems and physician groups all around the United States,” said John Thomas, president and chief executive officer. “We now have nearly 11 million rentable square feet of medical office space, which is more than 95 percent leased, and approximately 1,100 health system and medical service provider tenants.”

PRT will release its full fourth quarter results on Feb. 24.

Founder to retire

- Advertisement -

PRT also announced today John Sweet, the company’s founder, executive vice president and chief investment officer, retired on Dec. 31. Deeni Taylor has been promoted to fill the roles, effective Jan. 1, and PRT also has created a new role, senior vice president-deputy chief investment officer, and promoted Daniel Klein to the role.

Taylor joined PRT in October 2015. He previously was executive vice president at Duke Realty Inc. beginning in 2006, and before that spent 25 years in a hospital career, including as executive vice president and chief strategy officer for St. Vincent Health, president of Unity Health Management Services, vice president of planning and marketing at Ascension’s St. Vincent’s Hospital and vice president of ancillary services at St. Joseph Hospital.

Klein joined PRT in 2016, focusing on completing the integration of the CHI medical office facilities and supporting new business development. Previously, he worked for many years at Welltower and was co-founder and president of CB Richard Ellis/Reichle Klein.

Sweet will continue consulting with the firm on select projects. Before PRT’s 2013 initial public offering, Sweet was managing director of investment banking firm BC Ziegler, raising and managing a medical office building investment fund from 2005 to 2013. He also in 2002 co-founded a publicly traded medical office REIT, Windrose Medical Properties Trust, which was sold to what is now Welltower in 2006. From 1997 to 2001, Sweet was a managing director of BC Ziegler.

Sweet was recently appointed to the board of directors for Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust.

“John Sweet is a great husband, father, grandfather and entrepreneur,” Thomas said. “His legacy includes three public companies he led through the public offering process, as well as building a foundation for our company that we expect to last for generations to come. John has been more than an icon in our industry for a long time, but a true mentor and friend, and we will miss him around the office on a daily basis. During Mr. Sweet’s tenure as our chief investment officer, the company has grown from $125 million in real estate assets to just shy of $3 billion at the time of his retirement, with all of that growth achieved in less than 42 months. It should be noted, he led the fund and sourced all of that original $125 million in medical office facilities as well. Fortunately, John has agreed to continue to support us from time to time with specific projects and potential investments, while he also fulfills his responsibilities on the Wheeler board of directors and other business and community interests he pursues.”

Sign up for the BizTimes email newsletter

Stay up-to-date on the people, companies and issues that impact business in Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin

What's New

BizPeople

Sponsored Content

BIZEXPO | EARLY BIRD PRICING | REGISTER BY APRIL 15TH & SAVE

Stay up-to-date with our free email newsletter

Keep up with the issues, companies and people that matter most to business in the Milwaukee metro area.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy.

No, thank you.
BizTimes Milwaukee