Scottsdale health REIT buys Hawaii properties

• Scottsdale-based Healthcare Trust of American made $440 million of property acquisitions last year, focusing on medical office buildings.
• The nine-year-old company already is among Arizona's most valuable corporations and pays a dividend, like other real estate investment trusts or REITs.

Pass the sunscreen and pineapple juice: Scottsdale real estate company Healthcare Trust of America said it has purchased its first two properties in Hawaii — among the latest steps in its continuing national expansion plans.

The real estate investment trust, or REIT, which focuses on medical-office buildings, also said it closed on $122 million of acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2014, pushing its yearly total to $440 million. The fourth-quarter purchases included those in cities where Healthcare Trust already operates, such as Denver, Charleston, S.C., and White Plains, N.Y.

For the year, the company increased its portfolio by roughly 12 percent as measured by purchase price. Its acquisitions consisted of 21 medical office buildings featuring 1.2 million square feet of leasable area in eight states.

HTA seeks properties in high traffic, core medical locations that allow it to expand its property management and leasing services. The two Hawaiian acquisitions, both on Oahu, consist of the Kapolei Medical Park in Kapolei and the St. Francis Medical Pavilion in Honolulu. These transactions totaled $47 million and are located near hospitals. The company said it considers Oahu to be a market with high barriers to entry.

Since its formation in 2006, HTA has invested $3.3 billion to build a portfolio of properties with 14.8 million square feet of leasable area located in 28 states.

Healthcare Trust started 2015 as the 12th most valuable corporation headquartered in Arizona, with a stock-market worth or capitalization of $3.2 billion. Its shares returned 42 percent last year, including dividends. The current dividend yield is nearly 3.7 percent.