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What’s Behind Medical Office Buildings’ Strong Trajectory

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One of the US’ fastest growing industries, healthcare spending reached almost $3.5 trillion annually in 2017.

The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services anticipates national healthcare expenditures to grow to $5.7 trillion by 2026. With this growth, healthcare real estate, specifically medical office buildings, are poised for further success.

Medical Office Buildings

Medical office buildings comprise approximately 10% percent of the US office sector. These buildings are typically about 40,000 square feet and range from small physician offices to large healthcare systems. Investors are attracted to this asset class due to its stability and positive forecasts for a strong performance. On the rise for the last four years, medical office sales totaled $10.4 billion in 2018.

“Medical office buildings are so popular and are in demand as a renovation or as new construction,” says Jason Signor, CEO and partner of Caddis Healthcare Real Estate. “The market is phenomenal and occupancy levels and rental rates are healthy.”

It is well-known that the the aging US population is directly correlated with the rising demand for healthcare as doctor visits dramatically increase with age. Individuals 65 years and older spend five times more on healthcare than those who are younger. Yet, even with the favorable demographic and economic backdrop, new healthcare construction has not kept up with demand.

“With the continued shift from inpatient to outpatient care, new real estate strategies are being implemented which includes moving to urgent care centers, MOBs, micro-hospitals and health-system sponsored wellness centers,” says Signor. “ Outpatient care is booming and will continue to flourish in the future. The challenge, of course, is for our sector to keep up with the growing demand.”

Ambulatory Surgery Centers

Ambulatory surgery centers—healthcare facilities which offer patients the option of having procedures and surgeries performed outside of the hospital setting—have drastically reduced healthcare costs. According to the American Hospital Association, the number of ASCs and hospitals are almost equal with 5,534 hospitals and 5,532 surgery centers. While hospitals have declined by 5%, surgery centers have grown as much as 82% since 2000.

“ASCs will continue to dominate the healthcare real estate landscape,” says Signor. “We won’t see these large hospital campuses being built as much. As the campuses get older however, you will see more renovations as hospitals keep up with medical technological advances and stay abreast with ASCs.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

Montecito Medical Buys 221 KSF Nashville-Area Medical Office Building

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Montecito Medical Real Estate has recently expanded its Nashville-area footprint with the acquisition of Murfreesboro Medical Properties LLC, the ownership group of a 221,000-square-foot medical office building in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Murfreesboro Medical Clinic occupied the entire property. Located at 1272 Garrison Drive, the MOB opened as a 78,000-square-foot facility in 2008 and underwent an expansion in 2013 through a build-to-suit second phase that enhanced the property by 143,000 square feet. In addition to clinic space, the trophy asset houses an ambulatory surgery center with four operating rooms.

“We review over $1.3 billion in assets each month and typically pursue only the top five percent that meet our investment criteria,” Joellyn Shannon, a vice president with Montecito Medical Real Estate, told Commercial Property Executive. “We prefer newer, larger assets that are occupied by dominant physician groups or strong health systems with long-term leases and we will pay-up for these attributes, so the seller will make more money, too.”

The physician leaders of MMC, who had been fielding unsolicited offers for the three-story building since construction of the first phase kicked off in 2007, will not only remain tenants in the building, but they’ll also retain an ownership position as a result of their reinvestment in the entity acquiring the asset.

Bolstering A Premier Portfolio

The Murfreesboro MOB marks one of a handful of purchases Montecito has completed in 2019. The company kicked off 2019 with the acquisition of a 110,000-square-foot medical office complex in Clarksville, just outside Nashville. The company’s other purchases this year include a 30,500-square-foot MOB and surgery center in Bedford, N.H., roughly 50 miles north of Boston, and a 42,000-square-foot MOB in Greenwood, Ind., near Indianapolis. And there’s more to come. Montecito has access to approximately $1 billion in capital for additional investments.

“While there are certainly challenges aggregating a large medical office building/ambulatory surgery center portfolio, Montecito is extremely active in the market,” Shannon said.

Montecito and Murfreesboro Medical Properties relied on Anthony Lunceford, Joe Massa and Woody Widenhofer of Colliers International for representation in the transaction.

 

Source: Commercial Property Executive