Marcus & Millichap, a leading commercial real estate investment services firm, has sold two medical office buildings located in Lebanon.

The two-property portfolio sold for $1.55 million, says Jody McKibben, vice president and regional manager of the firm’s Nashville office.

“Multitenant medical office buildings located near hospitals continue to be in high demand, and we find more investors seeking to acquire MOB’s that have staggered rent roll to limit their downside risk and potential of a total vacancy,” says Ryan Gonzales, senior associate in the firm’s San Diego office.

“In this transaction, we advised our client over a period of time on how they could maximize value through extending leases and marketing the property through our national platform while still providing an attractive upside to a value-add investor.”

Gonzales and Michael Grenaway, associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Nashville office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller. Gonzales and Grenaway also procured the buyer.

CarePayment buys Horizon Health Fund

CarePayment, a Nashville-based patient financing company, has acquired Horizon Health Fund, a patient financing solution firm.

The acquisition comes after a year of record revenue and membership growth for CarePayment.

“2019 was a historic growth year for CarePayment,’’ says Craig Hodges, CarePayment CEO. “We increased our membership by 45%, reaching more than 5.9M patients served. This major milestone was a result of a significant increase in new loans from both new and existing provider partners.

“We now serve more patients than any other patient financing solution in the marketplace and the acquisition of Horizon Health Fund further accelerates our growth strategy for 2020, bringing more consumer loans under the CarePayment brand. The deal also affords us partnership opportunities with Professional Recovery Consultants, which will lead to even more opportunities for growth.’’

Horizon Health Fund, a subsidiary of Professional Recovery Consultants, is a Durham-based company that specializes in patient financing for hospitals and large health systems. Horizon Health Fund has over three decades of operational experience in working with hospital receivables.

BlueCross BlueShield aids state’s food banks

The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation is donating $3.25 million to multiple food banks across the state.

The financial gift will help Tennessee food banks meet the needs of the communities affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Food banks can often purchase supplies at a much lower cost than individuals can, stretching to provide as many as four meals for each dollar they receive in cash donations.

The BlueCross Foundation will distribute food relief funds to the following organizations:

• $750,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee (Nashville)
• $750,000 to Mid-South Food Bank (Memphis)
• $500,000 to Chattanooga Area Food Bank
• $500,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee (Knoxville)
• $500,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee (Tri-Cities)
• $250,000 to Regional Inter-Faith Association (Jackson)

Nashville apartment properties sold

NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. has closed on the sale of two properties in Nashville.

Willow Grove is a 244-unit apartment property built in 1973 on Plus Park Boulevard, and Woodbridge is a 220-unit apartment property built in 1980 on Bridgeway Circle.

The properties are situated on approximately 18.12 and 18.601 acres of land, respectively.

As of March 25, the properties were 95.04% occupied with a weighted average effective monthly rent of approximately $1,037. Net proceeds from the sale were approximately $33.1 million, based on a blended nominal cap rate of 5%.

NexPoint management anticipates using the net proceeds from the sales for liquidity, general corporate purposes and share repurchases as part of NXRT’s updated stock repurchase program.

Flipboard to launch in Nashville, other areas

Flipboard, a curated content platform, is coming to Nashville and other Metro areas.

The initiative brings its total to 35 cities. In each city, Flipboard works with local partners such as Cleveland.com | The Plain Dealer, the Detroit Free Press and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Additionally, Patch and ProPublica are joining the initiative, expanding local coverage from seven existing local topics – news, politics, real estate, commute, dining, sports and weather – to include timely coverage of two of the most pressing issues for local communities: The impact of the novel coronavirus and the 2020 election.

For each city, Flipboard works with local publishers and content creators such as broadcasters and bloggers, as well as national media outlets that cover local stories to offer a curated experience based on the best sources.

VMG Health sold to Northlane Capital

Quad-C Management, Inc., a middle market private equity firm, has completed the sale of its investment in VMG Health, a provider of valuation and advisory services for the health care industry with offices in Nashville.

Northlane Capital Partners was the acquirer and the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

VMG professionals will maintain a significant ownership stake going forward, and VMG’s executive team, including the founder and CEO Greg Koonsman, will continue to lead the company in the next phase of its development.

Franklin company tracking COVID-19

Perception Health, a provider of data intelligence services for the health care industry based in Franklin, is adding a new service to track the daily spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

The service shows the daily impact of COVID-19 on America’s counties and local health systems.

“Being on the front line of this disease in Freehold, New Jersey, I have seen firsthand the dedication of America’s health care workers,” says John Ulett, CIO, CentraState Health System. “Our community and hospital have been quickly impacted by cases and deaths. We need accurate reporting like the services Perception Health is providing to truly understand the daily spread and impact of the disease.”

Across the United States, 36% of counties (1,125) are reporting cases regularly; 99 counties are not reporting at all.

“What’s really important right now is to get consistent reporting by county from each state,” says J. Tod Fetherling, CEO of Perception Health and an industry veteran in health data analytics. “We need each county and state to report tests, cases (confirmed positive), deaths and recovered. This is the only way to accurately understand how prevalent the virus is and where techniques are being the most effective in limiting the spread of the deadly disease.

Cumberland joins COVID-19 fight

Nashville’s Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc., a U.S. specialty pharmaceutical company, has announced a national initiative to support the treatment of patients with hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia associated with the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Pneumonia caused by secondary bacterial infections – such as a Gram-positive bacterial infection – is common among patients with viral respiratory infections.

Furthermore, pneumonia was the leading cause of death in patients suffering from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which was before the use of antibiotics, according to a manuscript co-authored by Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the current director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Cumberland’s initiative includes the availability of special financial arrangements for hospitals and clinics to help ensure supply during this unprecedented health care crisis.

XOi makes Tech Tribune state list

Nashville’s XOi Technologies, a cloud-based mobile application, ranked among Tennessee’s best tech startups in a list by The Tech Tribune for the third year in a row.

XOi empowers field service contractors to virtually collaborate with an industry-leading online knowledge base and complete more service requests.

XOi was founded in 2013 by CEO Aaron Salow and is among Nashville’s fastest growing startups. The application XOi Vision facilitates customer service and stakeholder communication by innovating data capture for field service companies in the electrical, mechanical and plumbing industries.

In 2019, XOi raised $11 million in Series C funding by PeakSpan Capital with participation from Grotech Ventures, Nashville Capital Network and Vocap Investment Partners.

The Tech Tribune was founded in 2017 and delivers the latest in technology news through exclusive interviews, in-depth articles and startup insights from around the globe. Each year the publication ranks the best tech startups in U.S. cities and states, in addition to creating a national list.