This Unexpected Industry is Becoming Dominant in The Woodlands

Move over, energy companies, office development and live/work/play balance. Healthcare is taking charge in The Woodlands area right now.

Healthcare is the second biggest chunk of job growth today in and around The Woodlands, The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership CEO Gil Staley (between colleagues Ellie Pfahl and Laura Lea Palmer) announced at Bisnow’s Future of The Woodlands and Springwoods Village event yesterday afternoon. Texas Children’s will be a top 10 employer in The Woodlands when it completes construction of its 548k SF hospital on 22 acres. Methodist is building a 470k SF hospital with 193 beds and a 135k SF MOB. CHI St. Luke’s is building a 100k SF MOB in Springwoods Village and a 55k SF medical center there. Kelsey Seybold recently opened an 80k SF facility, and Memorial Hermann (which just celebrated its 30-year anniversary in The Woodlands) is expanding again.

Pinecroft Realty CEO Tom Pisula (here between Strong Firm’s Eric Thiergood and Wendy Lambie) has built 800k SF of MOB space in The Woodlands, and has four underway right now. He says there’s roughly 850k SF of healthcare product under construction in The Woodlands and Springwoods Village areas—that’s a big expansion when you consider there’s only 1.4M SF of existing product. This is all happening, Tom says, despite the fact that healthcare is providing the lowest returns right now across property types. It’s being spurred by need and systems fulfilling their missions, not economics. That said, between rising land and construction costs and medical rents around $21/SF, he thinks medical development will be difficult to build in The Woodlands going forward.