Last year 77 medical office projects started that will be over 100,000 square feet when completed. That’s quite an uptick over previous years when we averaged less than 50. The lion’s share of these projects are multi-specialty outpatient centers that serve as a “one stop shop” for patients to see their primary doctor, a specialist, have a procedure, see a doctor after hours, get imaging or lab tests done and fill their prescriptions. We are swiftly moving away from the days where you have to make several stops related to the same service/issue. As we continue to see disruption in outpatient healthcare from organizations like CVS and WalMart, in addition to burgeoning (and primarily not hospital affiliated) urgent care, hospital systems have to rise to the occasion to compete. This is certainly a way to do it. Large centers with complementary services in convenient locations create stickiness and also help to solidify a hospital’s brand. I hope you will join us next week for the MREIF at PGA National to further dig into this trend and many more!
