Anchor Health scores $58M construction loan for Baptist rehab center in South Miami

A health care real estate developer scored a $58.4 million construction loan for a Baptist Health rehabilitation center in South Miami. 

Charlottesville, Virginia-based Anchor Health Properties will develop a 92-bed facility on 2.4 vacant acres at 6201 and 6233 Sunset Drive, as well as at 7150 Southwest 62nd Avenue, according to South Miami records. First Citizens Bank & Trust Company is the lender, records show.

The 97,000-square-foot building will rise three stories with a fourth-level penthouse. An adjacent 180-space garage will rise two stories and include parking on the third-level rooftop. The project is a joint venture between Baptist Health South Florida and Brentwood, Tennessee-based health care services provider Lifepoint Health. 

Anchor Health leased the development site from South Miami Hospital, a subsidiary of Baptist Health that has its campus near the rehab center site. South Miami commissioners greenlit the rehab facility in October and the development agreement between Anchor Health and South Miami Hospital in January, city records show. 

The rehab center will provide inpatient care for people recovering from physical and cognitive medical conditions, but won’t include an emergency department or operating rooms. The average stay at the center would be 12 to 14 days, according to a presentation by a Baptist and Lifepoint representative to commissioners in October. 

Led by Ben Ochs, Anchor is a health care real estate development, management and investment firm, according to its website. It has completed $2 billion worth of projects and invested nearly $3.2 billion in real estate, while also having 9 million square feet of assets under management. 

Lifepoint, led by David Dill, is a network of hospitals, rehab and behavioral centers, and other health care facilities, its website shows. 

Led by Bo Boulenger, Baptist is a Coral Gables-based network of hospitals, as well as urgent care and health care centers. As of 2022, Baptist was in line to pay $14.3 million for a development site at 12401 West Oakland Park Boulevard in Sunrise for Baptist’s first Broward County hospital. Deed records show the sale has not been completed. 

Last month, Bethesda Hospital sold a vacant 30.7-acre site that was formerly a medical office campus at 3800 South Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach for $37.7 million. The buyers, Foundry Commercial and Wheelock Street Capital, plan a 457,000-square-foot industrial project on the site. 

Anchor, Lifepoint and Baptist didn’t immediately return requests for comment. 

Other hospitals in expansion mode in South Florida include Mount Sinai Medical Center. It dropped $32 million for a 5.6-acre development at 8250 and 8200 Southwest Eighth Street in Westchester in September, two months after an attorney inquired on behalf of an unidentified client whether a hospital with fewer than 100 beds is allowed on the property.