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Medical Office Rents Weather The COVID-19 Storm

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The medical office sector hasn’t been immune from issues caused by COVID-19.

But Kyle O’Connor, president and founder of MLL Capital, would still rather be in that commercial real estate asset class than any other part right now.

“The medical health care sector and the life science sector seems to be holding up a bit better than some other property types. Certainly, hotels or retail are having a different experience. For us, it’s one of the reasons why we liked the sector and continue to like it a lot. We viewed the asset class as having a number of supportive features associated with it.”

Still, O’Connor says there are issues in the medical sector.

“A lot of people are very concerned that the risk of catching something in the doctor’s office might be greater than whatever the issue in the house. Over time, I think the expectation is that it will dissipate, and the need for those basic health care services will resume.”

In April, MLL, which has 15 buildings in the medical and life sciences sector, collected 97% of rents. In May, the company collected more than 97%. And, as things open up in June, O’Connor sees things improving further. America’s vast, aging baby boomer demographic is one reason that O’Connor likes the medical segment, but it’s not the only reason.

“We find that a lot of the practices are in relatively healthy condition. Their leverage levels tend to be lower in many cases. It is a business that does not have a lot of high highs or low lows.”

In a market where there’s still a lot of capital, and other sectors of CRE are floundering, O’Connor expects more interest in medical office properties. But interested buyers will run into roadblocks.

“Because of the specialty nature of the property types and the things that you learn by being in the space for a bit, I’m not concerned. It is a type of property where it’s very beneficial to have experience and knowledge. We don’t think it’s one that, you know, capital readily flows into. But investors are still taking a wait-and-see approach for the time being. For a small asset class like medical is, it’s too early to make any real prognostications. We do think that it is the right time to be in the market and looking for investment opportunities, which we’re trying to put a lot of energy into doing right now.”

Right now, O’Connor doesn’t see large loads of capital focused on the space.

“They may have some other opportunities that are distracting them or maybe presenting themselves.”

Right now, O’Connor sees that capital focused on other targets.

“I think if you’re an opportunistic fund, you’re probably spending a lot more time looking at the hotel sector, than you would be the medical sector. There’s probably distress pricing happening there. I’m sure some hotels are in default. Whereas, most medical office buildings have had a performing loan in March or probably still going to have a performing loan in the future.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

Growth In Outpatient Demand Drives A Surprising Number Of Buildings Greater Than 150,000 Sq. Ft.

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With the opening this month of the 10-story, 250,000 square foot MOB at the new Sutter Health CPMC campus in San Francisco, the market is heralding a new era of large format medical office development with building size over 150,000 square feet.

This new trend is a function of the well-recognized growth in outpatient care with its focus on the patient experience and physician convenience with critical services and specialties housed under one roof, with the added goal of accountable care in a lower cost setting. The timing couldn’t be better given the surge in capital seeking investment opportunities in healthcare given the quality of tenancy and durability of medical office properties.

There are currently 44 medical office development projects larger than 150,000 square feet under construction in the United States, a total of 10.9 million square feet, representing 22% of all medical office projects underway. In aggregate, the large format projects represent $5.3 billion of investment or $480 per square foot. Six developments alone are over 400,000 square feet and the ten largest projects have a total budget of $2.3 billion. JLL estimates that the mark-to-market valuation of these projects, once completed, is $7.8 billion.

The largest medical office development under construction and near completion is located on the Upper East Side in Manhattan – the 750,000 square foot, David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care. Interestingly, two of the top four largest medical office developments are located in New York City. Over forty percent of the active development projects larger than 150,000 square feet are located in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. The Southeast is the least active region with only one project under construction that’s larger than 150,000 square feet.

Providers dominate the ownership of the 44 projects. Only 10 buildings, representing approximately 20% of the square footage, are owned by third party investors. However, the surge in large format outpatient buildings and the staggering scale of capital required to support these developments is an encouraging sign for institutional real estate investors as the capital intensive business of healthcare is expected to eventually turn to real estate investors to augment health system access to bond markets and philanthropy.

 

Source: HREI