Montecito Medical buys Virginia Eye Consultants building in Norfolk

Published March 26, 2018 by Paula C. Squires

Montecito Medical Real Estate, an owner of medical office buildings throughout the U.S., has acquired the Virginia Eye Consultants medical office building and ambulatory surgery center in Norfolk. The price was not disclosed.

The 34,177-square-foot building serves as headquarters for Virginia Eye Consultants (VEC). The facility provides 25,593 square feet of medical office space with more than 60 exam rooms, plus an accredited ambulatory surgery center. 

VEC specialists perform various eye procedures on site. They specialize in procedures related to LASIK eye surgery, cataracts, dry eye, eye diseases and skin rejuvenation. 

“Physicians evaluate patients thousands of times every year, but we sell our professional home perhaps only once or twice in a lifetime,” Dr. John Sheppard, president of Virginia Eye Consultants, said in a statement.

Sheppard noted that he had access to Montecito’s CEO, the chief accountant for personalized tax strategy analysis, and the vice president for acquisitions “with each executive providing email turnover within hours, not days. I truly anticipate our continued collaboration through the opportunity to reinvest in the property, as well as hopefully many more physician-friendly acquisitions to come.”

The Investment Sales Group of Virginia Beach-based Divaris Real Estate Inc. brokered the sale.  DRE’s Alex Divaris, Jason Oliver, and Vivian Turok represented the seller, Virginia Eye Development LLC, in the sale-leaseback transaction.

Built in 2005, the two-story Class A building is located near two major thoroughfares in Norfolk. “With 16 doctors and four offices, Virginia Eye Consultants is the largest ophthalmology practice in the Hampton Roads market and has a reputation for providing world-class specialty eye care, which makes it a strong addition to our portfolio,” Chip Conk, CEO of Montecito Medical, said in a statement.  “This asset met all of our criteria and is the second medical office property in the Tidewater area of Virginia that our company has acquired over the past four months.”

In December Montecito Medical acquired the Clearfield Portfolio, a medical campus in Virginia Beach with two attached buildings totaling 86,377 square feet.

VEC has been providing eye care to the Hampton Roads region for more than 50 years, and it has been recognized as one of the 20 fastest- growing businesses in Eastern Virginia.

Montecito Medical, with offices in offices in Nashville, Tenn.; Austin, Texas; and Orange County, Calif., is one of the nation’s largest privately held companies specializing in health care-related real estate acquisition

Since 2005, the company says it has been involved in medical real estate transactions of more than $2.3 billion totaling more than 6 million square feet in 25 states.

Its current portfolio and health-care system relationships include UCLA, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Holston Medical Group, Urology of Virginia, OrthoCarolina, Bon Secours, Maine General, Carolinas Health System, EmergeOrtho and State of Franklin Healthcare Associates.