BAYONNE AND BEYOND -- A vague press release from a real estate investment trust called Medical Properties Trust, based in Birmingham, Ala., said last week that Medical Properties had purchased a hospital in Dallas, Texas, as well as the land of a New Jersey hospital that sounds a lot like Bayonne Medical Center.

The release reads, “The company purchased for approximately $58 million the real estate of a 6-story, 278-bed acute care hospital in the New Jersey area of metropolitan New York, and leased the facility to the operator under a 15-year lease, with six 5-year extension options. The operator is an affiliate of a private hospital operating company that acquired the hospital in 2008.”

Bayonne Medical Center is a 278-bed hospital.

The release implies that the land has been sold, but the facility has been leased back to the owners who are running it as a hospital.

A spokesperson for Bayonne Medical Center confirmed on Tuesday that there has been a sale of land, but not of the hospital. More details will be revealed after they are made public.

The hospital was purchased in 2008 by a group of investors, IJKG Opco LLC.

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