Healthcare: Medical office building deals on the rise
by Kimberly Morrison for Jacksonville Business Journal
When Dr. Ira Harmon set out a year ago to open an urgent care clinic on Jacksonville’s Northside, he was able to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by steering clear of new construction.
To open AccuCare of North Florida, he found a 36-year-old former bank that had been everything from an insurance office to a nightclub and invested in a complete renovation. He spent $220,000 to gut the 5,000-square-foot space, a third of what he was looking at paying to build a similar-sized facility from the ground up.
More entrepreneurs who, a few years ago would have been more likely to opt for new construction, have discovered they can make a smaller investment with attractive lease terms by improving an existing facility. That demand is helping drive strength in one sector of commercial real estate: medical office and laboratory space.
Industry experts predict deal flow for medical office building transactions and new development will accelerate in the second half of 2010 as health care providers begin to prepare for the onslaught of newly insured patients entering the marketplace. Helping the trend: loans for medical office buildings are available, unlike traditional office and retail space, according to research by Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate services firm based in New York City.
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[jacksonville.bizjournals.com]
