Investors in medical outpatient or medical office buildings understand they are investing in a sector with durable stability. Investors also understand that this stability is often traded in lieu of outsized growth. But some investors do create growth or value within the MOB sector. While there are traditional value add plays such as increasing occupancy, one of the key methods savvy investors have used is to target investments in higher acuity MOBs. Examples include surgery centers, urgent care centers, and other forms of higher acuity that fit within MOBs. Surgery centers are becoming more and more prevalent within MOBs, both in single tenant form and in multi-tenant MOBs. MOBs in many states are offering advanced procedures such as hip replacements, cardiac surgeries, and advanced ophthalmologic surgeries within an outpatient MOB.
RevistaMed categorizes these MOBs with surgery centers, covered drop offs, med/bed elevators, urgent care and freestanding emergency centers as “high acuity MOBs”. We can compare the avg rent of high acuity MOBs to MOBs that do not have the referenced tags (low acuity MOBs). When looking at these 2 groups we can see that high acuity MOBs generally run average base rents of $4.50 to $5.00 PSF higher than low acuity MOBs. The difference is currently $4.92 which has grown over the past few years. This suggests that higher acuity MOBs not only run higher rents but have a bit more ability to negotiate slightly higher rent bumps than lower acuity MOBs. The Revista property search can be used to find MOBs with ASCs and other higher acuity features. To learn more schedule a demo today.
