A 5.29-acre property on Mercy Drive that's been housing a 120-bed nursing facility since 1983 just changed hands for $38.4 million, and the buyer is tied to one of the country's biggest healthcare real estate investors. The deal closed with an Oct. 30 deed, but the paperwork doesn't say who will actually run the Courtyards of Orlando Care Center and Rehab now that new ownership is in place.
According to GrowthSpotter, an entity called 1900 Mercy Dr Propco LLC acquired the site from EZT TIC LLC, MF Group LLC and ORRE LLC. Florida business filings connect the buyer to Welltower, a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in Toledo, Ohio. The facility itself — which provides recovery help for fractures and joint replacements — sits in a 32,344-square-foot building, with a separate 1,500-square-foot warehouse also on the property.
A Facility Running Nearly Full
Occupancy numbers help explain why the property drew that kind of price tag. Courtyards of Orlando Care Center was about 97% occupied during the latest year of state reporting, outpacing both Orange County and Florida as a whole, the outlet's report notes. That's a notable jump from the 87.99% occupancy AHCA recorded for the facility in the 12 months ending June 30, 2022, according to a Florida Agency for Health Care Administration document.
The site has also seen some recent upkeep: fire-alarm and electrical permits were issued in 2026, and roofing work was completed in 2025, per the same GrowthSpotter account. Courtyards Nursing and Rehab LLC has held the facility's operating license since August 2023, and that license lists capacity at 120 beds. The sale documents do not specify what happens to that operating arrangement going forward, and Welltower has said it generally leases its properties to tenants rather than managing them directly.
Welltower's Florida Buying Spree
This single Orlando deal is a small piece of a much larger pattern. Welltower reported acquiring 78 skilled nursing facilities for about $1.76 billion during the first nine months of 2026 alone, according to its third-quarter Securities and Exchange Commission filing cited in the report. It leased those 78 properties to Avir Health Group under long-term agreements — the same hands-off landlord model it's expected to follow elsewhere. That pace builds on a 2025 in which the firm acquired 130 skilled nursing facilities for roughly $2.47 billion nationwide.
South Florida has seen its own share of the activity. Welltower acquired three Broward County nursing homes — in Miramar, Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors — for $160 million, with a combined capacity of 436 beds, the Orlando report states. Separately, Commercial Observer reports the company has spent just under $170 million buying three South Florida properties since 2025, including a 220-bed facility in Davie, and paid at least $49.1 million for the 120-bed Glades West Rehab & Nursing Center in Miramar — a price that worked out to just over $409,000 per bed. The same outlet notes Welltower sold a five-property Palm Beach County portfolio for $81 million back in February. The South Florida Business Journal separately reported Welltower's purchase of Palmetto Care Center in Hialeah as part of a portfolio deal worth nearly a quarter billion dollars.
Tight Supply Driving the Market
The buying frenzy tracks with an industry running short on space. Freestanding nursing facilities across 99 markets hit 86.7% occupancy in early 2026, the highest level since 2016, even as those same markets had 1,704 fewer beds than a year earlier, GrowthSpotter's reporting states. Marcus & Millichap reported that skilled nursing transaction activity rose nearly 50% in the year ended June 2026, with the Southeast's transaction count more than tripling — though national activity still remained about 65% below its 2015-2019 annual average.
Orlando's own occupancy climb isn't new. Orlando's skilled nursing occupancy rose 6.8 percentage points during the second year of the pandemic and stood at 85.9% in the first quarter of 2022, according to NIC MAP.
More Beds Could Be Coming to Orange County
Separately from the sale, Courtyards secured approval on July 8 for a $150,000 project to add 12 beds to the facility, though the evidence does not establish whether that work has been completed or whether the facility's licensed capacity has changed. A broader state planning process is also underway: the latest AHCA calculation identified a need for 22 additional community nursing-home beds in Orange County for July 2029, out of 449 needed statewide.
Three prospective applicants filed letters of intent in October 2026, each seeking that same 22-bed allocation in Orange County, per the GrowthSpotter account. Orange County SNF LLC has proposed adding 22 beds to an already-approved 179-bed project; Solaris Healthcare East Orlando is looking to expand its existing 120-bed facility; and Orlando Lutheran Towers has proposed converting 22 sheltered nursing-home beds into community beds. Applications in that process are due Nov. 18, with initial state decisions scheduled for Feb. 12, 2027. Separately, Florida Administrative Code Rule 59C-1.008(2)(a) requires the state to publish its Fixed Need Pools at least 15 days before any letter-of-intent deadline, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.
