ATLANTA-Healthcare Trust of America, a self-managed, non-traded REIT, acquired a 35,200-square-foot medical office building in Stockbridge GA, a suburb of Atlanta, for just over $8 million. The acquisition, the sixth this month, is part of a $260.6-million buying spree that the REIT has been on since January of this year, buying up properties in Indiana, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina just in the month of July.

The most active buyer of medical office buildings in the country in 2009, says Mark D. Engstrom, executive vice president for acquisitions at the Scottsdale, AZ-based company, HTA has acquired 8.6 million square feet since its formation in 2006. The REIT started buying assets in early 2007, says Engstrom.

Overlook at Eagle’s Landing, the latest acquisition, is a 100%-occupied medical office building that is located in the southern suburbs of Atlanta in Henry County, one of the fastest growing counties in the US in 2009. The six-year-old building is less than a half mile from the Henry Medical Center, a 215-bed not-for-profit community hospital with more than 400 physicians on staff which has served Henry County since 1979. The facility recently completed a $60 million expansion.