Medical Properties Trust Hands Final Greater Boston Hospitals To Lender

Medical Properties Trust has formally relinquished control of two shuttered hospitals in Greater Boston, marking its exit from the region after the monthslong saga over bankrupt operator Steward Health Care. 

The hospital REIT gave control of the former Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center properties to lender Apollo Global Management, according to deed records filed last week. 

MPT and partner Macquarie Infrastructure Partners agreed to relinquish control of the two shuttered hospitals to Apollo in August along with six other hospitals that remained open. The deed filing marks the finalizing of that transaction, and it recorded the values of the properties at $76M for Carney Hospital and $6M for Nashoba Valley Medical Center.

Following Steward Health Care's bankruptcy filing last year, the hospital operator announced it planned to close down the two hospitals in July after failing to secure buyers to take over operations.

The hospital closures received strong pushback from residents and local officials who worried it would create a bigger health crisis in the region. After Carney Hospital closed, Mayor Michelle Wu said she would fight any attempt to redevelop the hospital into anything other than a medical facility.

“Our community is rightly concerned that your companies, not satisfied with the hundreds of millions in value already extracted from Steward hospitals, hope to capitalize on the closure of Carney Hospital by redeveloping the property,” Wu wrote in an August letter.

All eight of the hospitals had at least one offer from Michigain-based Insight, but Steward declined the bid before closing Carney and Nashoba Valley hospitals, the Boston Herald reported.

The other six former Steward hospitals have been sold to other providers: Boston Medical Center, Lifespan Health System and Lawrence General Hospital. The state also seized control of Steward's flagship location, St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton.

MPT, which owns 402 properties across nine countries, still owns one hospital in the state, the Vibra Hospital of Western Massachusetts, according to its website. The REIT's business model came under fire from Massachusetts politicians last year, with the state's two U.S. senators comparing it to a “Ponzi scheme.”