Senior Housing Properties To Buy Two Medical Office Buildings For $1.125 Bln

(RTTNews) - Senior Housing Properties Trust (SNH) Monday said it agreed to buy two 15-story biotech medical office buildings in Boston, Massachusetts for $1.125 billion.

The buildings, which comprise biomedical research facilities, corporate office space, structured parking and street-level retail space, contain 1.65 million total gross square feet, 96 percent of which is occupied by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (VRTX).

The company expects the deal to be immediately accretive to normalized FFO per share by approximately $0.06 - $0.08 per year. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and it is expected to close in the first half of 2014.

"The acquisition of this state-of-the-art property, which is ideally located in Boston's fastest growing downtown submarket and one of the nation's top investment markets, represents a unique opportunity to further diversify SNH's portfolio and increase our exposure to the medical office building segment," said David Hegarty, President and Chief Operating Officer of SNH.