By james art Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is buying two Innovation Quarter buildings, bucking a recent trend of Triad health systems selling and then leasing key facilities.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has paid $28.5 million to purchase buildings located at 525@vine and 635@vine on Vine Street, according to a Forsyth County Register of Deeds filing Thursday.
The buildings were sold by an affiliate of Ventas Inc. from Chicago.
Baptist officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the purchase.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine manages the 1.2 million square foot innovation district under the auspices of the university.
525@vine is a 234,000-square-foot mixed-use building that includes several medical school faculties along with the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity.
Medical tenants outside of Wake Forest include Greater Winston-Salem Inc., Forsyth Tech Small Business Center, Sunrise Technologies, Lotus Yoga and CJMW Architecture + Interior Design, the Triad’s largest and oldest architecture firm.
635@Vine is a 242,000-square-foot building that served as Inmar Intelligence’s headquarters before the company moved to the One West Fourth building in 2022. The medical school is in the process of moving its Eye Institute to 635@ Vine.
The building is notable for its five-story atrium lobby.
635@Vine spent much of its existence as an RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. facility.
It was given a new life in 2013 by Wexford Science & Technology LLC, the main developer of IQ.
The most recent high-profile example of the medical equipment sale-leaseback trend came on Oct. 3, when Novant Health Inc. said it has completed the sale and leaseback of 20 medical facilities in its Triad and North Carolina markets to two Chicago healthcare real estate groups.
The deal includes eight buildings in the Winston-Salem area, including the corporate headquarters at 2085 Frontis Plaza Blvd.; eight in the Charlotte area; and four in the Wilmington area.
Buyers are Remedy Medical Properties and Kayne Anderson Real Estate. Remedy Medical is a full-service healthcare real estate company and the nation’s largest privately held healthcare real estate owner with more than 33 million square feet and 25 offices spanning 44 states.
Carl Armato, president and CEO of Novant, said the buyers “understand the unique role of our facilities.”
Although financial terms were not disclosed, Novant could potentially stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars, given that affiliates of Chicago-based medical real estate investment trust MB Real Estate spent a total of $83.86 million on seven properties in October 2019 of Winston-Salem that Novant leased.
An Oct. 24 statement from Forsyth said Novant received a total of $29.7 million from the sale of two medical facilities in Clemmons: an orthopedics and sports medicine clinic at 7210 Village Medical Circle; and Village Point Family Medical Practice at 7130 Village Medical Circle.
In July, several Greensboro medical facilities leased by Cone Health were bought for a total of $72.73 million by a Florida-based real estate investment trust.
The largest of the properties sold was 1126-1132 N. Church St., bought for $45.18 million. It is known as 1 Church Street Medical and contains 68,672 square feet.