Two landowners that have been seen as roadblocks in long-stalled talks to sell six Steward Health Care hospitals in Massachusetts appear to be walking away from their properties, boosting the chances that hospital sales can be completed by the end of the week.

After multi-party negotiations dragged on through last weekend, attorneys said during a US Bankruptcy Court hearing Tuesday that real estate firm Medical Properties Trust and its partner Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, which jointly owned a long-term lease on the hospital properties, agreed to turn it over to their mortgage lender.

That surprise agreement would effectively remove MPT and Macquarie from the hospital sales talks, leaving lease negotiations with prospective buyers in the hands of New York-based Apollo Global Management, a Wall Street giant that manages assets of nearly $700 billion but is largely invisible to the public in Massachusetts.

With a single negotiator, and all parties motivated to wrap up sales deals by Friday, “significant progress has been made,” Steward’s lawyer, David Cohen, told Houston bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez.

Steward said it has qualified bids from prospective buyers of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Morton Hospital in Taunton, and St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River.

The bankrupt company said it drew no qualified bids for two other hospitals, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. The judge last week approved a Steward plan to close both of those acute care hospitals by the end of August.

Hugh McDonald, a lawyer for the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services and the state Attorney General’s office agreed “we made a lot progress” over the past week and said state officials expect the sales deals to be wrapped up this week.

The progress was enough for Governor Maura Healey’s administration to modify a plan to offer about $30 million in bridge funding for the Steward hospitals on the condition that purchase agreements were finalized by Tuesday. Even with the deals unfinished, the administration will advance a first tranche of the funding, $11.3 million, this week.

A second tranche of $18.6 million will be paid on Aug. 16 only if the deals are completed by Friday, according to the modified funding deal. Judge Lopez, who must sign off on any money flowing to Steward during the bankruptcy proceedings, approved the bridge funding Tuesday.

“This payment agreement represents the Commonwealth’s continued commitment to achieving the transition of the six remaining facilities to new operators,” McDonald told the bankruptcy judge.

The new dynamics of the negotiations cast a spotlight on Apollo, a secretive firm that thus far hasn’t commented on its involvement in the Steward bankruptcy case. Other parties say Apollo has taken a leading role for weeks in the talks about lease terms with prospective hospital buyers while also bickering with the landlords, a dynamic described by a Steward attorney last week as an “intra-stakeholder dispute.”

Judge Lopez last week nullified a lease Steward negotiated with the landlords in 2016 requiring the hospitals to pay more than $100 million in annual rents. Even before it filed for bankruptcy on May 6, the cash-strapped hospital systems had stopped paying the rents, curbing the cash flow of the landowners who owed mortgage payments to Apollo.

The parties didn’t disclose financial terms of the agreement in principal transferring the hospital properties from the landlords to Apollo or whether Apollo planned to retain the properties and collect rents on them or sell the land and buildings to new hospital operators.

Steward, which is selling its hospitals and its doctors group to pay off its scores of creditors, is expected to run out of money from its bankruptcy loans within weeks. The bridge funding can be used only for the hospitals’ operating expenses until they can be sold, not for executive compensation or rental payments, according to the funding terms.

The money is an advance from MassHealth, the state Medicaid program, based on the hospitals’ participation in several quality and equity incentive programs the state sponsors for low-income patients.

Robert Weisman can be reached at robert.weisman@globe.com.

WORCESTER, MA — A rapidly expanding chain of Nashville hot chicken restaurants will soon expand to Worcester.

Dave’s Hot Chicken — which has billed itself as “America’s fastest growing restaurant chain” — has applied for a license to operate a restaurant at 41 Park Ave., according to this week’s License Commission agenda. That address is the Trolley Square plaza, sandwiched between Park and Grove Street.

Dave’s might also be the fastest-growing restaurant chain in Massachusetts. Over the past year, the chain has opened restaurants in Framingham and Braintree, but has seven other locations in the state in Boston (Dorchester and Chinatown), Saugus, Chelmsford, Woburn, Newton and Medford.

The chain only got its start in 2017 as a pop-up restaurant in a Hollywood parking lot. The musician Drake has invested heavily in the chain, helping it to expand to more than 30 other states and Washington, DC. Boston Red Sox owner Tom Werner has also invested in the chain.

The Worcester License Commission will hold a hearing on the restaurant Thursday morning. The restaurant is proposing hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.

MANSFIELD – A Massachusetts family says their hearts were touched by a surprising act of kindness. They didn’t know that some rare coins were mixed in with an item they sold at a yard sale until they were returned with a note.

It’s been an emotional year for the Spiewakowskis, moving their elderly dad out of his Dudley home; selling the house and many of his possessions.

“It was nice because my brothers and I got to spend some time together at the house and did a lot of reminiscing and so forth,” said son Steve Spiewakowski of the estate sales.

But they’ll never forget what they gained, in something that was given away.

“We never would have known. We didn’t know that stuff was in there and we never would have missed it,” he said.

A yard sale customer paid $6 for a box of costume jewelry. Days later, that customer tracked the family down through their realtor.

“I don’t remember seeing this,” Steve said, holding the small box of coins. “This is what he put in the mailbox. He said they were worth over $200. I don’t know the value of these coins.”

A note left behind

Even more touching than the items’ return, were the words that came with them. The customer had also left a note.

“I just wanted to share a quote with you that has guided me to a richer life,” Steve read from the note. “Beware of over-concern for money, position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are. Kipling. He signs off, take care, Mike.”

The family never saw Mike, and only know that he’s a collector — someone to whom the coins could be even more appealing. But his honesty more precious than silver.

“Those are the heroes in the world. They do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do,” Steve said. “People can be so mean to each other. We forget how nice people can be. I hope he knows what a tremendous impact he’s made on a family who’s been struggling with their dad’s stuff over the last year. It made a big difference with us.”