Health Care Property to Buy 18 Buildings

Health Care Property Investors Inc., the largest U.S. health care real estate investment trust, said Thursday it is buying 18 medical office and research buildings from the Boyer Co. for $126 million to diversify its holdings.

Two-thirds of the buildings are in Utah, mostly at the University of Utah’s Research Park Campus, the Newport Beach company said. The others are in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho and Wyoming.

About half of the properties target the bio-pharmaceutical and health-care laboratory industries.

The acquisition from Salt Lake City-based Boyer will help Health Care Property diversify holdings that consist mainly of long-term and congregate care facilities and medical office buildings. The biotechnology industry is experiencing “strong growth,” the company said.

“This acquisition extends our investment capabilities in health-care real estate and is a defining transaction for the company,” chief executive Kenneth B. Roath said in a statement.

Health Care Property is buying 12 medical office buildings and six research and development facilities with a total of 864,000 square feet of space. About 30% of the buildings are still under development, the company said.

Health Care expects to complete the acquisition of the existing facilities, which are about two years old and fully occupied, in the third quarter.

Separately, Health Care reported second-quarter net income of $28.7 million, or 54 cents a share, down 5% from $30.3 million, or 59 cents a share, a year ago. The results for the recent quarter included a $532,000 gain on the sale of real estate properties, compared with gain of $3 million for the 2000 quarter. Revenue rose slightly to $84.5 million from $84.1 million.

Health Care Property stock fell 25 cents to $35.80 on the New York Stock Exchange.