By Suzanne Newmark
Making sense of the real estate market for the healthcare industry requires a commercial real estate broker with industry experience. Healthcare professionals are facing a multitude of questions and issues that are forcing practices to reassess their real estate needs.
Is it smart or possible to relocate? Does it make more sense to stay in place and enhance the environment to make it more patient-friendly? Is it in the practice’s best interest to compress and dispose of extra space, or to compress and save? Should a practice continue leasing its space or consider purchasing it outright to build equity.
At its simplest, the commercial real estate needs of healthcare tenants are unique because the tenant has a much different parking demand than the average user. With patients being booked in increments of 15 minutes, there is a constant flow of cars coming and going from a medical practice. As a result, medical tenants typically require a greater ratio of parking per square foot of space. A key component for finding the right fit is making sure zoning is in place for the necessary parking requirements. With each town requiring different ratios for medical zoning, it is imperative that a broker be aware of and familiar with the varying ordinances.
More complicated is having an understanding of what state and township approvals are needed for medical tenants. When dealing with medical tenants, there’s a higher standard of use than that of the average tenant — a whole myriad of approvals is often necessary, and it’s important that a broker understand the process. A seasoned broker investigates the situation to find out if these approvals are feasible, and does what he or she can to affect the process. This may mean referring an experienced land use attorney for the landlord or tenant, or even going before a planning board. Additionally, only a broker with experience in healthcare knows how to structure a lease to include all of the contingencies that come with these approvals. Possessing the knowledge and skill to protect and establish a rapport between all involved parties is critical.
In addition to possessing knowledge of the healthcare industry, it’s important for a broker to maintain a strong network of outside experts. There are a number of other professionals who must be relied upon, including medical accountants, architects, space planners and attorneys, to ensure inside, hand-on knowledge of the working operations of healthcare practices, and the subsequent space-related features that these operations require.
Also, with the long hours healthcare professionals typically work, a broker must be willing to adapt his or her schedule in order to be accessible.
Lastly, it’s important that medical professionals and property owners have a firm they can turn to that is focused on opportunities within the local and regional marketplace. In a field that has gone global, firms such as Newmark Associates are maintaining their focus on the regional marketplace, especially with regard to trends affecting the local and regional healthcare industry, allowing them to provide under the radar opportunities to clients and customers.
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