One of the healthcare real estate sector's most prolific property buyers of recent years is planning to change its status.

New York-based ARC Healthcare Trust Inc., an unlisted real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on healthcare real estate (HRE), is making plans to be traded on a public exchange.

In recent weeks, the REIT, which is sponsored by New York-based American Realty Capital (ARC), issued a statement saying that its board of directors “has determined it is in the best interest of ARC Healthcare's stockholders to proceed to file an application to list its common stock on a national stock exchange under the symbol “HCT.” The company anticipates that its common stock will be listed on an exchange sometime in the first quarter (Q1) of 2014.

A process to determine the best course of action for the REIT's long-term strategy was started in spring 2013 and included consulting with the REIT's financial advisors: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. and RCS Capital, a division of Realty Capital Securities LLC, an affiliate of ARC and its dealer-manager.

The REIT's intention to be listed comes after three years of prolific growth. It first offered its stock to investors in 2011 and by April 2013 it had raised about $1.8 billion, at which time it closed the initial offering.

As of recent weeks, ARC Healthcare's portfolio totaled 114 properties with a value of $1.6 billion, based on purchase price. The portfolio has a total of 5.8 million square feet of space; the occupancy rate, excluding its senior housing properties, stood at 97 percent, according to officials.

The past year, 2013, was an especially active one for ARC Healthcare, as the REIT acquired $1 billion. In addition, as of recent weeks the REIT had entered agreements to acquire yet another $371.5 million of assets, meaning officials expect the overall portfolio to top $2 billion soon.

The portfolio's overall space is composed of 44 percent MOBs, 34 percent seniors housing, and 22 percent other HRE assets.

Nicholas S. Schorsch, chairman and CEO of ARC Healthcare, noted in a statement that Thomas P. D'Arcy, CEO of American Realty Capital Healthcare Advisors LLC, “is the ideal executive to lead ARC Healthcare on to an exchange. He has been a NYSE CEO previously, and therefore has a deep understanding of what behaviors the market rewards and what he will need to do to deliver stockholder value.”

At about the same time ARC Healthcare Trust closed its stock offering in April, its sponsor, ARC, had broken escrow on another healthcare-focused REIT: ARC Healthcare Trust II Inc., which began offering common stock for $25 per share in February 2013.

As of Oct. 15, ARC Healthcare Trust II (ARC HRII) had had acquired seven healthcare-related properties, which it says were 100 percent leased. It paid $46.2 million for those facilities.