A 48-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital on Jacksonville's Southside just sold for $48.75 million, a price tag that dwarfs the roughly $17 million it cost to build the place only four years ago. The Duval County Clerk of the Court recorded the deed for Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital Jacksonville on August 12, transferring the 57,300-square-foot facility at 12645 Salina Drive to a new owner with deep pockets and a national healthcare real estate strategy.
The sale price works out to roughly $850.78 per square foot and about $1.015 million per licensed bed, a nearly 187% jump in value over the facility's original construction cost, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. The buyer, HPIV Jacksonville LLC, is an entity tied to Milwaukee-based Hammes Partners, which specializes in acquiring and developing outpatient and post-acute healthcare properties on behalf of investors, per its own materials cited in the newspaper's reporting.
How a $17 Million Build Became a $48.75 Million Asset
The property's path to this sale started in December 2022, when Dallas-based Reunion Jacksonville RE LLC paid $2.36 million for the 4.6-acre parcel northeast of Kernan and Beach boulevards, buying the land from Tamaya Loan Acquisition LLC ahead of construction. The City of Jacksonville issued three construction permits that same month for the project, and Auld & White Constructors LLC built the three-story hospital, according to the Daily Record's earlier reporting on the site. The facility was custom-built by Dallas-based developer American Development & Investments LLC, an affiliate of Reunion IRF that has developed similar Reunion rehab hospitals in Phoenix and Denver.
City site plans approved back in March 2022 designed the hospital for a two-phase buildout capable of reaching 60 beds, well beyond the 48-bed initial phase now in operation. Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration currently licenses the facility, under License #4553, for 48 comprehensive medical rehabilitation beds through November 14, 2027, with Reunion Hospital Holdings LLC listed as the licensee owner.
Who's Behind the New Ownership
Hammes Partners funded the purchase through Hammes Partners IV LP, a closed-end value-add healthcare real estate fund that closed at $739 million in March 2022. The firm keeps a downtown Jacksonville office at 50 N. Laura Street, and public records show that the City of Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension System is among the institutional investors that have committed capital to that same fund, with the pension system beginning to fulfill capital calls in September 2023.
Day-to-day hospital management stays with Nobis Rehabilitation Partners, which has served as the facility's designated manager since July 2023 and holds the CIHQ national accreditation the hospital carries for meeting acute rehabilitation care standards. Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital Jacksonville was Nobis' first location in Florida, a foothold the company has since built on. In July, Nobis opened the 36-bed Pinellas County Rehabilitation Hospital in Pinellas Park after acquiring a former Everest Rehabilitation facility, part of a broader push into the Tampa Bay rehab market. Nobis also operates rehabilitation hospitals elsewhere in the country, including two in Colorado, two in Arizona, two in Texas, and one in Ohio.
New Leadership, Same Local Services
The ownership change comes just months after a leadership shakeup at the hospital itself. Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital Jacksonville named Dr. Gaston E. Gonzalez, a Doctor of Physical Therapy who previously led the launch of a startup rehabilitation facility in Lake City, as its Chief Executive Officer in February, according to a statement from Reunion Rehabilitation Hospitals. Gonzalez succeeded Curtis Whetzel, who had been appointed CEO in September 2023.
The Salina Drive campus sits adjacent to Grand Living at Tamaya, an independent living, assisted living and memory care facility, and includes therapy gyms and an outdoor courtyard as part of its treatment amenities. The hospital treats patients recovering from stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, neurological injury, multiple trauma and amputation, and it provides 24-hour nursing care along with individualized treatment plans, according to the hospital's own materials. Beyond inpatient care, the facility also hosts a monthly Stroke Support Group for local survivors and caregivers, one piece of community programming tied to its stroke care focus.
What remains unclear is whether the change in ownership will affect the site's planned Phase 2 expansion to 60 beds, an option baked into the original city approvals but not yet acted upon under either the prior or current ownership.
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