Aurora spends $160.8 million to buy 13 buildings

Aurora Health Care has spent a total of $160.8 million to buy 13 buildings that it had been leasing, including a building on the Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center campus it bought for $54 million.

The health system bought seven buildings for a total of $99.3 million and six buildings for a total of $61.5 million from a real estate investment trust.

The owner had decided to sell the properties, leading to their sale to Aurora, said Tami Kou, an Aurora spokeswoman.

The purchases were first reported by BizTimes Milwaukee.

Aurora has reported strong profits for more than three years, driven partly by investment gains on its reserves from the rise in the stock market. For the first nine months of last year, it reported an operating profit of $247.4 million and a net profit of $364.9 million, including $116.3 million in investment gains.