Lillibridge and Inkana officials couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn the price. However, Birmingham -area brokers familiar with recent medical office building transactions, tell GlobeSt.com that the portfolio was probably priced in the $200-per-sf range at the minimum. That would give the transaction an estimated $90-million tag and easily make it below-replacement cost, brokers point out.

Birmingham brokerage sources tell GlobeSt.com that they based their $90-million estimate on Governors Medical Tower, a five-story, 125,000-sf, $30-million medical office structure that Inkana plans to erect on land owned by Huntsville Hospital at Governors Drive and Gallatin Street in Birmingham. That per-sf-price comes to $240 per sf. Brokers say medical office buildings regionally and nationally are being constructed in the $250 per-sf to $400 per-sf range, depending on the special medical equipment involved.

Lillibridge's acquisition comprises Medical Office Building 48, built in 1989 and containing 116,972 sf; Medical Office Building 52, built in 1985 totaling 104,000 sf; and Regional Care Center 46, constructed in 2004 and totaling 227,237 sf. The acquisition increases Lillibridge's owned, leased and managed portfolio to 24 on-campus buildings totaling more than 1.7 million sf on five major Ascension Health Hospital grounds in Indianapolis, Kansas City, Austin, TX, Kalamazoo, MI and Birmingham.

Dena Flippen will handle leasing and management for the three buildings. St. Vincent's Health System manages Medical Center East. Lillibridge chairman and CEO Todd W. Lillibridge, says the acquisition complements the company's growing portfolio throughout the Southeast in Texas, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.