Repositioning

Adding value to office assets usually is achieved through improved leasing practices on ailing buildings. While owners and managers can only raise rents as the market allows them, some are seeking tenants whose market rent per square foot exceeds that of the typical office tenant. Repurposing a building into medical office is a top strategy in markets with strong medical demand, such as Florida and Southern California.

As of second-quarter 2007, medical tenants occupied only 4.2 percent of leased office space nationwide, according to CoStar Group. However, U.S. healthcare spending totaled nearly $2 trillion in 2005, or $6,697 per person, a figure that is expected to more than double by 2016, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In addition, healthcare services are expected to be the fastest-growing office-using employer between 2004 and 2014, according to a recent National Association of Realtors study.  With more than 1.9 million office-using healthcare jobs expected to come online in the next decade, high concentrations of medical office and a rapidly rising population may be a winning combination.

Alex Zylberglait provides commercial real estate investment advisory as well as research, estate planning, asset allocation, valuation, financing, special assets services, transaction advisory and commercial property acquisition and disposition services.