March 19, 2007 - Haverhill, MA - As part of its plan to focus its resources on the hospital, Merrimack Valley Hospital announced today it has sold its on-campus medical office building to a large real estate investment trust that owns medical real estate across the country. The transaction only includes ownership of the medical office building, leaving the hospital and all medical services unchanged. In addition, no changes are expected at the medical office building.

"It has always been part of our long-term plan to transfer ownership of the medical office. It gets us out of the landlord business and allows us to focus our time, money and energy on what we do best-taking care of our patients," says Robert Allen, hospital CEO.

This move follows a national trend for hospitals to divest themselves of real estate property and to team with third-party developers to build medical office space and lease it to physicians.

"Our new medical office building is extremely important to us as we recruit new physicians to our community. And getting them to office on our campus is a big plus," said Allen. "With a third-party owner, we get the best of both worlds. We can free up capital dollars for projects that enhance patient care and we still accomplish our goal of having physicians next door to our hospital."

Proceeds from the sale of the medical office building will be used to meet expanding needs at the hospital.

The four-floor, 54,316 square foot medical office building opened in December. Even after adding a floor to the initial design to accommodate physician interest, the building was 75 percent pre-leased.