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Wellness Is Critical In Healthcare Investment

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Wellness is the biggest trend rocking the healthcare investment market today. It has become essential to bending the cost curve down, according to healthcare investor and developer Meridian’s John Pollock, and players in the product type should focus on wellness as a means of managing population health.

“Wellness is critical to help bend the cost curve down. Providers and payors have to embrace this mindset and focus on managing the health of the population,” Pollock, CEO of Meridian, tells GlobeSt.com in a recent interview about market trends. “I recently caught up with Ken Gorman, Founder and CEO of Power Wellness. It is clear that focusing on population health vis-a-vi wellness centers is trend that should continue and aligns with Meridian’s mission to help ‘bend the cost curve.’”

Wellness centers have evolved tremendously, and insurance companies are catching on the importance of these services.

“These centers have evolved over the years from small retail-based outlets that were referral only to what Ken calls “Gen 3 Wellness Centers” serve upwards of 6,000 community members and integrated into clinical care pathways,” says Pollock. “Payors are finally realizing that wellness is less expensive than treating chronic conditions and should be reimbursable under Medicare Advantage, most Accountable Care Organization and/or risk-based contracts.”

This is an important trend for both experienced and new players to not. The healthcare market has seen substantial increase in the capital players.

“There has been a lot of entrants into the healthcare real estate space over the past few years, particularly in the value-add space, and it is disconcerting,” says Pollock. “Often new operators don’t truly understand the dynamics of medical office and are at risk because the space is nuanced, users are very particular, and the correct tenant ecosystem is critical to an asset’s success.”

This has also pushed healthcare operators into outlying markets, and as a result, healthcare is expanding in nearly every metro across the country.

“With so much competition in the primary markets, some of my colleagues are seeing opportunities in secondary and tertiary markets where yields can be 100-150 bps higher than in primary markets for similar lease terms and credit profiles,” says Pollock. “At Meridian, for our investment business, we continue to focus on primary markets and look for the opportunities that others don’t see. We believe our unique lens allows us to see opportunities that leverage our core competencies that include entitlement prowess, a seasoned project management bench, intense asset management and access to flexible capital.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

Medical Office Stays Strong In Major Healthcare Metros: 16% More Space Projected In Next Decade

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Driven by an aging US population, the amount of medical office space needed in the next decade is projected to be 16% more than today based on current trends, according to a report by CoStar.

That’s greater than the combined medical office space in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas–Fort Worth, the nation’s four largest medical office markets.

This 22,654-square-foot medical office building is located at 9500 North Central Expressway.

Following this healthcare growth pattern, a 22,654-square-foot medical office building located at 9500 North Central Expressway currently houses DaVita Central Dallas Dialysis. Robert Lynn Investments recently purchased the asset and has a new long-term agreement with a national surgical company to anchor the building.

Robert Lynn Investments will develop the new space and expects it to be operational in the first quarter of 2020. The investment division of NAI Robert Lynn was opportunistic in purchasing the off-market value-add opportunity, which is consistent with its portfolio strategy.

NAI Robert Lynn brokers Nick Lee and Justin Utay sourced the building purchase and presented it to Robert Hoodis, Robert Lynn Investments managing partner. Lee and Utay also handled lease negotiations with the new tenant.

“This was a highly collaborative venture between Robert Lynn Investments and NAI Robert Lynn that enabled us to customize a solution to truly meet the client’s needs,” said Hoodis. “As an investment company, we benefit tremendously by accessing NAI Robert Lynn’s brokers’ submarket expertise. It’s a relationship that not only helps us source off-market deals, but often negotiate them to a better outcome for our clients and tenants. In this case, our team of Robert Lynn Investments and NAI Robert Lynn discovered a desirable new location that enables us to better serve our client with great benefits.”

The building spans 22,654 square feet, with the new tenant space to take up approximately 12,037 square feet. The remaining usable space, approximately 8,200 square feet, is occupied by DaVita.

The building includes covered parking for patients and is optimized for patient flow. The location is a short distance from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, numerous medical offices and major highways.

“The 9500 N. Central project fits perfectly within Robert Lynn Investment’s portfolio strategy, which includes medical office buildings, surgical hospitals and surgery centers throughout the country,” Hoodis tells GlobeSt.com. “While we have built our portfolio primarily through acquisition, we have seen a recent increase in development opportunities. We consider the 9500 N. Central property a hybrid opportunity as an acquisition that includes a significant development component. The scope of this project requires us to take shell space and develop it into a full surgery center. In addition to 9500, we are currently working on several development projects, including the expansion of an existing surgery center and a large ground-up medical office project.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

An Overview Of The Medical Office Market

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The average asking rent for medical offices reached the highest level on record in the second quarter of 2018, rising 1.4 percent year-over-year to $22.90 per sq. ft., according to a late December report from CBRE.

The firm pointed to tight market conditions and the completion of new, high-quality space as reasons for the continued rent increases.

“Rents increased in two-thirds of the markets tracked by CBRE and grew fastest in some of the markets with the lowest vacancy rates, including Nashville, Manhattan, Louisville, Seattle, and Indianapolis,” Andrea Cross, Americas head of office research, CBRE, said in a statement.

Another factor is that health systems are increasingly using lower-cost outpatient centers. These facilities enable health systems to provide services closer to where patients live. According to CBRE, the total number of outpatient centers grew by more than 50 percent to approximately 41,000 from 2005 to 2016. In addition, outpatient center employment has more than doubled since 2003, and grew 3.5 percent year-over-year in October 2018, compared with 2 percent annual growth in overall healthcare employment.

“Healthcare systems are increasingly catering to patients as consumers—rather than simply users—of healthcare services,” Mark Lamp, executive managing director, healthcare, CBRE, said in a statement. “They are creating outpatient facilities that provide a more ‘hotel-like’ experience—and at a lower cost than the more expensive hospital services—with technology-enabled check-in, abundant natural light and incorporated outdoor spaces, and patient care concierges trained to support guests with any needs.”

On the development front, CBRE‘s report concluded that medical office development strongly correlates with population growth, with Phoenix, Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Atlanta among the top markets for total completions from the third quarter of 2017 to the second quarter of 2018, along with Minneapolis/St. Paul, a leading healthcare cluster. Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Atlanta, Chicago, the Inland Empire, Kansas City and Boston rank among the top markets for square footage under construction.

Click here to view NREI’s ‘An Overview Of The Medical Office Market Slideshow’. This gallery takes a look at the fundamentals in the top 30 markets ranked by vacancy rates as of the second quarter of 2018, but also includes stats on net absorption, asking rents and the amount of space under construction in each market.

 

Source: NREI