Prospect-ECHN Sells Woodlake at Tolland to New Operator

The owners and management of the new operator have more than 70 years of combined nursing home experience, Nina Kruse, senior vice president of community health and external affairs, said in the news release.

Terms of the sale were not announced, Kruse said.

Marc Brunetti, ECHN’s chief operating officer, said, “ECHN’s strategic plan is to focus on our acute care hospitals, outpatient service centers, coordinated regional care model, and provider offices. Divesting our long-term care services will support this plan.”

He said that the sale allows ECHN to diversify and engage specialty services in post-acute settings “for the benefit of patient care and outcomes.”

“The sale of Woodlake will allow ECHN to strengthen its partnership with many nursing home providers in the region, including Woodlake, to ensure that specialty care services are considered in the best interest of patient care,” Brunetti said in the news release.

The property is owned by MRT of Tolland SNF LLC, according to the Tolland assessor’s database.

MedEquities Realty Trust Inc., a Nashville, Tennessee, company founded in 2014, bought the property in 2017 for $10 million, then leased the facility back to Prospect-ECHN, under a 32-year lease, ECHN officials said at that time.

MedEquities Trust specializes in similar sale-lease agreements with hospitals and health systems.

Similarly, in 2019 Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. sold the property of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, along with properties in California and Pennsylvania, to Alabama-based Medical Properties Trust Inc., in a $1.55 billion deal.

Prospect said it would use the cash infusion to retire its existing term-loan debt.

Prospect purchased the nonprofit Eastern Connecticut Health Network in 2016, with the promise to continue to operate all of ECHN’s facilities until 2020.