Chiron Real Estate used its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call to introduce investors to a refreshed strategy that expands beyond its legacy medical office focus, while management emphasized recent balance sheet work, initial 2026 guidance, and a growing capital recycling plan. Executives also framed the quarter as the company’s first earnings call under the Chiron identity, while acknowledging its history as Global Medical REIT (NYSE:GMRE) .
Management outlines a “care, capital, and real estate” strategy
CEO Mark Decker Jr. said the company published an investor presentation “outlining how the Chiron team is building for the future,” and described the company’s mission as “delivering value at the intersection of care, capital, and real estate.” He argued that medical office has faced a prolonged bear market driven more by interest rates than by underlying asset performance, and said the company is preparing for an environment where 4% 10-year Treasuries may be “the new normal” and 2% to 3% rent growth could be “sub-inflationary.”
Decker also highlighted several conclusions from management’s portfolio work, including that medical office rent growth tends to be consistent but modest, and that entry price matters when growth is limited. He said the company’s portfolio is biased toward “higher prosperity markets” versus the United States at large, and emphasized that most assets are owned fee simple rather than encumbered by ground leases—an element he said can affect renewal negotiations when the ground owner is a health system. He added that rising construction costs and demographic shifts may create opportunities to “push rents” in coming years, particularly if Chiron takes a more proactive approach to pruning underperforming assets.
Senior housing expansion: focus on active adult and SHOP
A central theme of the call was Chiron’s decision to expand into senior housing. Decker said management concluded “the answer is an enthusiastic yes” on pursuing senior investments, citing the “silver tsunami” and long-term growth in the population of Americans aged 70 or older. He also said existing supply is constrained and deliveries are expected to be “far short” of what is needed.
Management described its thesis as assembling a differentiated portfolio of “premium, newly built” active adult and seniors housing operating properties (SHOP). Decker pointed to an average age of 24 years for existing senior housing assets and said newer facilities with strong operators may have an advantage, particularly in active adult communities where amenities and programming are central to the resident experience. He also cited a growing cohort of higher-income seniors and said Chiron’s smaller size can be an advantage because “relatively small transactions move the needle.”
In Q&A, Decker said the company’s senior housing focus is on independent living and assisted living, with “some memory care,” while “stay[ing] away from skilled.” He also said Chiron is prioritizing operator and real estate quality and is initially focused on regional or single-market operators with solid track records and generally newer assets. The investment team for seniors is not fully built out yet, he said, and the company expects staffing to evolve with the pace of investments.
Capital recycling, dispositions pipeline, and early active adult investment
Decker emphasized that the company intends to fund early senior housing moves through capital recycling given its cost of capital. During the quarter, Chiron sold an “early vintage” medical office property for $10 million, which Decker said reduced execution risk and capital needs associated with stabilizing a “poorly positioned” building. He said the company used the proceeds to repurchase stock in a “leverage-neutral” manner.
Management also said it has identified approximately $250 million of prospective dispositions, likely focused on assets that “demonstrate the overall quality of our book,” including a portfolio of inpatient rehab facility (IRF) assets and the Beaumont Surgical Hospital. Decker said the company has started marketing efforts and believes it will realize proceeds “meaningfully above our basis.”
On the growth side, Decker highlighted an announced active adult investment in Minneapolis, where Chiron took a 49% interest in the development of a new community expected to deliver in 2027. He said the investment is expected to generate a “stabilized double-digit unlevered IRR” and was sourced off-market through a long-standing relationship with a luxury housing developer. In a follow-up question, Decker said Chiron is not receiving a preferred return on its capital in that specific Minneapolis investment, though he said a preferred element would be the goal in future transactions.
When asked about timing, Decker said the company is looking for a joint venture capital partner for its inpatient rehab niche. He said a full sale could occur if a buyer insisted on it, though that is not the objective, and he “imagined” activity could occur in the second or third quarter. On a separate medical office sale, Decker said he expected an LOI within roughly 60 days and for the asset to be “off the books” by the third quarter, noting it had been a strong same-store contributor and recently signed a 15-year lease with A-rated credit.
Quarterly results and 2026 guidance
CFO Bob Kiernan reported Nareit-defined FFO of $0.97 per share and unit for the quarter, and Core FFO (previously referred to as AFFO) of $1.16 per share and unit. He said net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 6.2x, down 0.7x from the prior period, driven by a recent preferred equity issuance.
Same-store cash NOI rose 5.4% year over year, Kiernan said, with sequential growth of 2.9%. He also announced a shift to a monthly dividend, with no change to the annual rate of $3 per share, citing a more frequent income stream for shareholders and reduced frictional costs for the company.
For 2026, Kiernan introduced initial Core FFO guidance of $4.30 to $4.45 per share and unit. He said the range includes $0.36 of anticipated headwinds related to balance sheet “fortification efforts” in the back half of the prior year and does not assume any “speculative acquisition or disposition activity.” He later added that efficiencies embedded in the guidance largely relate to items in 2025 that are not expected to recur in 2026, including time spent working through the company’s strategy.
Tenant and watch-list commentary
Asked about White Rock’s bankruptcy, management said the tenant had paid first-quarter rents and is “currently current” on payments. Decker described the underlying property as a 14-acre site east of Dallas and said the operator bought the asset out of bankruptcy in 2023 with difficult seller-financing terms. He said the current bankruptcy is intended to improve the operator’s financial flexibility by eliminating some seller financing, and that Chiron is working to be a “collaborative partner,” while also preparing alternatives if needed.
Management also said prior Steward-related issues were “really resolved,” and noted Prospect remains an ongoing situation, with Chiron’s East Orange asset “affected…materially.” When asked if there were other watch-list concerns beyond White Rock, Decker said there was nothing else the company was spending “a lot of time on right now.”
About Global Medical REIT (NYSE:GMRE)
Global Medical REIT (NYSE: GMRE) is a real estate investment trust focused on owning and managing healthcare-related properties across the United States. The company acquires, develops and leases a diversified portfolio of medical office buildings, outpatient facilities, long-term care centers and other specialized healthcare real estate. By concentrating on essential healthcare assets, Global Medical REIT seeks to generate stable, long-term rental income under triple-net and modified gross lease structures.
Since its incorporation in 2016 and initial public offering in 2017, the company has pursued an acquisitive growth strategy targeting markets with strong demographic trends and limited supply of modern medical facilities.
