KUWAIT, 15 March 2006 — Global Investment House (Global) announced yesterday that its US Real Estate Fund had completed its third medical office building acquisition in the United States. The acquisition is in line with the fund’s management strategy and a continuation of its investments. Sameer A. Al-Gharaballi, executive vice president at Global, said that the acquired property is the Marietta Medical Center, located at 790 Church Street, Marietta, Georgia. The total value of the investment is $21.1 million, of which the fund’s participation is equivalent to $7.4 million.
The property was built in 1989, renovated in 2002, and is situated on a five-acre rectangular land parcel. It is a five-story concrete building of 98,531 rentable square feet. It was designed with two-level entrances highlighted by two-story atrium overlooking an exterior patio area. Connected to the property is a three-level parking deck consisting of 413 parking spaces with property access on both the ground level and first floor.
Marietta Medical Center maintains a parking ratio of approximately four spaces per 1,000 square feet of rentable area. The seller in 2002 had commenced a comprehensive renovation which included the installation of a new chiller, the updating and reconfiguration of the lobby, the resealing and recocking of the building’s windows, the replacement of half of the roof’s surface and the resealing of the expansion joints in the parking deck.
The property is located less than two miles west of Interstate 75, a major north-south highway which provides access to both Hartsfield International Airport and the Atlanta metropolitan area. Church Street provides exceptional visibility and convenient access to the property. Its elevated position is attractive to tenants who covet its panoramic views of the surrounding areas.
The property has a strategic location across the street from WellStar Kennestone Hospital, a 493-bed regional hospital, which makes the investment very attractive to the fund. The hospital services a region of approximately 600,000 people. The hospital’s emergency room, ranked as the state’s busiest, treated more than 110,000 patients last year.
Al-Gharaballi said that the average annual cash income on the acquisition is approximately 7.4 percent, although the cash income for the first year is 6.2 percent, distributed monthly.
With this new acquisition, the fund has invested about 50 percent of the investors’ total commitments received to date.
