Welltower Sells Hinsdale Nursing Home

Publicly traded medical property specialist Welltower continued its Chicagoland selling streak last week.

The Toledo, Ohio-based firm sold a nursing home at 600 West Ogden Avenue in Hinsdale to Lincolnwood-based Pearl Healthcare for $21.5 million, public records show.

Pearl Healthcare, led by Eittan Zeffran, operates over a dozen nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities in the Chicago area, according to its website.

Welltower first bought the property in 2008 but the prior purchase price is unclear. In 2018, the company, along with ProMedica Health System, acquired HCR ManorCare, the prior tenant and part-owner of the 600 West Ogden Avenue property.

Property tax records at the time showed that Welltower paid $27 million for ManorCare’s ownership interest in the Hinsdale nursing home as a part of the larger, $4.4 billion acquisition deal with ProMedica.

Welltower’s recent sale of the property comes after the company sold a pair of medical ground leases in the Chicago suburbs for $57 million.

Representatives of Welltower and Pearl Healthcare did not respond to requests for comment.

Activity in the medical-adjacent real estate sector has picked up this year with ground leases, hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient facilities all trading hands in recent months.

Last month, Atlanta-based Meadows & Ohy purchased a University of Chicago primary care office in Hinsdale for $18 million from Chicago-based MedProperties.

And over the past year, Ariel Gurnicki, a former employee of Pearl Healthcare, struck out on his own and began an acquisition streak in the Chicago area.

In March, Gutnicki bought The Grove at Evanston at 500 Asbury Avenue in Evanston for $16.8 million and The Grove at The Lake at 2534 Elim Avenue in Zion, near the Wisconsin border, for $16.1 million, public records show. Both properties operate as post-hospital rehabilitation centers that offer outpatient services and long-term stays.

Under his new company, Alpine Healthcare, Gutnicki rebranded each facility to Alpine Care of Evanston and Alpine Care of Zion.