ALBANY-Healthcare Trust of America has completed its $196-million acquisition of a nine-property medical office portfolio, primarily located here, GlobeSt.com has exclusively learned. The last piece of the puzzle locked into place Wednesday afternoon with the closing of the sale of Northern Berkshire Ambulatory Center in North Adams, MA, Healthcare Real Estate Capital’s E. Hunter Beebe tells GlobeSt.com.

Managing principal of New York City-based HRE Capital, Beebe represented the seller, Albany-based Columbia Development Cos., in the off-market sale. “The deal was done on a pre-market basis, but we had shown it to a select group,” says Beebe.

HTA, a Phoenix-based REIT formerly known as Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT Inc., “had a high level of interest” in the Columbia Medical Office Portfolio, he says. The REIT has acquired a number of portfolios around the country in recent months.

The Columbia portfolio acquisition reportedly entailed the assumption of more than $95 million in debt. Along with the North Adams property, included in the portfolio are medical office buildings at 1365 and 1375 Washington Ave., the Patroon Creek MOB at 400 Patroon Creek Blvd., the headquarters of CDPHP (Capital District Physician’s Health Plan) at 500 Patroon Creek Blvd. and the 1092 Madison MOB, all in Albany; the Capital Region Health Park in Latham, NY; the Putnam Ambulatory Surgery Center in Carmel, NY; and the Florida Orthopedic Institute in Temple, FL, a Tampa suburb. The REIT began closing on pieces of the deal in late fall 2010, according to published reports.

Beebe says the portfolio totals 960,696 square feet and is 97% occupied. Tenant rollover, he adds, is “very limited over the next five years.”

Although REITs have been the most active buyers in the health care sector in recent years, Beebe says that as this year progresses, “you’ll see more of the leveraged players come back as the debt markets are freeing up.  There’s a lot of institutional and foreign capital that’s sniffing around the States, and you’ll start to see some new, significant entrants into the market. Over time, he adds, they could become “significant holders or investors in the sector.”