News
MOB MENTALITY
February 10, 2011
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| Yesterday, we assembled a slew of real estate gurus for ourHealthcare Real Estate Summit at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead. Thanks to the 375 of you who came to learn just how the economic recovery combined with healthcare reform is creating pent-up demand for real estate. There are at least a couple of trends driving the need for MOBs and other healthcare commercial properties, according to Ackerman & Co's Kris Miller, above: People have waited a long time to make decisions, leaving physician groups finally forced to make moves. And healthcare reform will add some40 million new patients to the system, spiking demand. | |
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| The panel: Duke Realty's Jason Hinkel, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia's Philip Oullette, Grady Health System's Craig Tindall, Arnall Golden Gregory's Scott Shuman (our flawless moderator), CBRE's Lee Asher, Kris, and Carter's Tom Wittenberg. Jason says developers seeking capital must ensure new MOB projects are high quality so they can hit pre-leasing thresholds. For MOBs with hospitals as an ownership partner, the hospitals have?total control? over who they lease and sell the space to, Lee says. ?It's very important for the system to know who's coming on their campus.? | |
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| Both Phil and Craig (here with Jason on the far right) say electronic records have revolutionized the healthcare industry. Craig went so far as to call electronic records ?nirvana? in improving efficiency and reducing medical mistakes but at a huge cost. For instance, a hospital can cut a $35K/year records clerk, but it now has to hire a $70K/year IT manager. For developers, Kris says it's been a time to switch from ?defense to offense.? With capital more available, he says Ackerman's seeing more opportunities, including the recent purchase of an MOB in Marietta from foreclosure and another possible acquisition on the horizon. ?We never had more activitythan we see now in the health system,? he says. ?We see the future in medical as extremely bright. Certainly there are challenges, but right now, we think it's time to be bold.? | |
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| We ran into Alter Group's Russ Posey among the crowd. He says his Alter+Care division has been busy developing ambulatory carefacilities throughout the Southeast, including a 100K SF MOB in the Tampa area and another 80K SF MOB in Philadelphia: ?Actually, believe it or not, we're seeing some build-to-suit activity? in the mainline Atlanta office market. | |
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| Here we got Lisa Roberson and Lynda Herrig with engineering firm Newcomb & Boyd (one of our valued sponsors) to smile for our camera. They tell us the firm most recently completed themechanical and plumbing engineering at the new Grady Health System Neuroscience wing, a project that Grady's Craig mentioned during the event. |
