University Of South Florida Moving Forward With New Life Sciences Building

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The University of South Florida (USF) will be moving forward with construction of a new mixed-use lab and office project for the University of South Florida’s Research Park, located on USF’s campus in Tampa.

The total cost of the project is $42 million.

The three-story life sciences building will house 120,000 square feet of office and lab space within USF’s Research Park, complete with ground-floor retail and dining options. Designed by architecture firm Gensler, the expansion of the research park will strengthen the university’s life sciences and technology ecosystem. Upon the project’s completion estimated for fall 2021, the capacity of the research park will be expanded by more than 30 percent.

 

Source: School Construction News

Medical Office Buildings Poised For Quick Recovery

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While hospitals and health-care facilities have been inundated by an influx of COVID-19 patients, many medical offices that offer non-emergency services have seen the opposite occur.

The property type’s solid fundamentals prior to the virus, however, promise a relatively rapid rebound when the economy is up and running again, according to Marcus & Millichap’s April special report on medical office buildings.

With many shelter-in-place orders in effect, communities across the U.S. are avoiding unnecessary travel and exposure, including those patients seeking elective surgeries or nonessential surgical and dental procedures. As patients decide to reschedule their appointments until further notice, many medical offices aren’t generating revenue and have had to partially, or fully, close.

The Post COVID-19 MOB Market

The COVID-19 pandemic has already left its mark on different facets of commercial real estate like office leasing, construction and retail. While the medical office building market was not spared, its strong market fundamentals prior to the emergence of the new coronavirus offer signs of a healthy market after the pandemic ends.

The national vacancy rate for medical office buildings was 90 basis points below the trailing 10-year-average of 9.7 percent, according to the report. The U.S. market also saw 6 million square feet of medical office space absorbed in 2019. Following demand, the below-average availability of medical offices has led to a steady stream of new properties, with deliveries hitting 10 million square feet. The statistics have attracted the attention of private investors looking for assets between $1 million and $10 million.

Once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control and the economy recovers, the medical office building market is expected to bounce back. The combination of an aging population, expanded medical insurance coverage and new treatment options equate to a growing demand for health care and the medical offices that come with it. Once the economy begins to return to normal, the backlog of work due to closed offices and rescheduled or canceled appointments will likely bring a sudden influx of work for medical-office staff.

And once the market returns to normalcy, the report noted that well-located assets with the infrastructure to handle modern medical needs will be in high demand. Specifically, medical office building demand may grow in non-urban markets as younger Millennials begin to move away from urban centers.

 

Source: Commercial Property Executive

Coronavirus Could Push Jacksonville Into Becoming A Life Science Cluster

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North Florida could benefit from future research related to the coronavirus.

Michael Brown, senior director for office services for Colliers International in Jacksonville, who is a life sciences CRE specialist, believes clusters will continue to develop around the University of Florida and Alachua and around the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

“There are some very talented people in this region at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Florida, as well as some world-class contract manufacturing operations in Alachua,” Brown tells GlobeSt.com. “There will be companies seeking out their help, particularly in a time like this. I can also see other contract manufacturers and contract research groups giving North Florida serious consideration for expansion. Companies are being funded and good science is finding its way into labs. There are positive developments that offer promise. We are going to see a lot of push and pull. If this goes on for a much longer period of time than anyone hopes, I think there will be more detrimental issues and things that are unforeseen such as supply chains collapsing. But there is a silver lining out there as well. The science developed recently over the last two years has been way ahead of the innovation curve in terms of discovery. Manufacturing processes are getting better. The science itself, even if it is postponed or interrupted, will still be good science when it’s sitting on the shelf and not doing anything for a while.”

The country’s main life science clusters are well-established-Boston, San Francisco, San Diego and North Carolina’s Research Triangle—but there are secondary markets that are slowly gaining density and Brown asserts that Jacksonville has the foundation to become a small cluster. He cites land availability, transportation infrastructure and science coming out of the region’s universities.

“The academic underpinning is essential and it bodes well for Jacksonville,” Brown says.

Many challenges lie ahead, but Brown is optimistic that the life sciences sector in the US has the building blocks in place.

“My feeling is that when this does end, that ramping back up in pursuit of this science is going to be difficult and will require funding and new regulations, but it can be done and it’s not as though we’ve had companies out there failing in what they are pursuing,” Brown says. “I don’t want to say we will pick up right where we left off, but this particular industry will bounce back and it will bounce back with lessons learned along the way that will be very much process oriented.”

 

Source: GlobeSt