CHARLOTTE-The next big thing in commercial real estate investment is medical office buildings, according to George Yerrall, managing director of Stamford, CT-based RiverOak Investment Corp., LLC. The company recently purchased four-buildings in the Novant Health, Inc. portfolio in the Charlotte-Winston-Salem Corridor of North Carolina for $21 million. The seller was a group of private investment entities advised by Commercial Realty Advisors of Winston-Salem.

The buildings in the Novant portfolio are 100% occupied by divisions of the Novant Healthcare System. Together they consist of just under 250,000 square feet of medical warehouse, accounting, human resources and IT office space.

Over the next two years, Yerrall expects his company to go on a buying spree, snapping up medical office buildings in the US using $150 million of equity. In addition to the Novant Health buildings, RiverOak, which is in a joint-venture with a Persian Gulf investor, plans to acquire an additional medical building, this one in Georgia, in May, for $6 million. The purchase of a sixth building outside of Charlotte, is expected to close in June for under $10 million.