These are the most common requests fielded by our medical representation group:
- Accessibility – Doctors are looking for greater access to major road arteries and highways so that their patients can locate them easily. If a doctor’s office is off the beaten path, the patient may become lost and have to cut through side streets or worse, make unnecessary phone calls to your office. From a patient’s perspective, after exiting the highway, a physician’s practice should be no greater than two turns. As a patient, they may not be in the best physical or mental health whereby adding additional stress may complicate the already difficult situation. While most doctors that we speak with have a strong regard for their patient population, more and more are heeding this wisdom.
- Mixed-Use Development/Modern Architecture – More often, physicians are looking for mixed-use developments featuring more modern architecture. They are attracted to buildings that are appealing and inviting. Unless you are a small practice with a doctor or two, the old one story stucco flat roof office building is quickly becoming history. A few recent medical office building projects in the Woodlands, Sugar Land and Cinco Ranch are examples of prime upscale designs with the more modern office park environments to which many physicians gravitate.
- Parking Ratio and Parking – Most professional office buildings have a parking ratio of three to four parking spaces per thousand square feet. With patients coming and going throughout the day, doctors need to have at least five to six parking spaces per thousand square feet to avoid overcrowding. Since parking can be tight in areas such as Downtown, Midtown and the Inner West Loop, doctors often shy away from the area for medical. Driving the suburban markets you will notice medical in every direction, but driving Travis Street, Main Street, or Westheimer the medical is very sparse, if not nil in some stretches. Physicians are requesting reserved parking, which is also a nice bonus for key employees and staff as well. Also, covered handicapped pick-up and drop-off areas are a real asset, especially if there are associated outpatient treatment facilities.
- Shell Space vs. Used Space – Although shell space, not built-out, may cost more in the initial term, it will end up saving the practice or organization a tremendous amount of money in the long run. With new shell office space the practice can implement space planning/design to fit their needs as well as increasing patient flow. Used office space with existing layouts, but such space often cannot be adapted without expensive demolitions and remodeling. While this can be accomplished, there still remains the potential for poorly laid out space that doesn’t fit the requirement.
- Proximity to Other Physicians – In a medical office building, doctors are often looking for proximity to other physicians who may refer business to one other. For example, a family medicine physician will frequently refer patients to other medical specialties such as cardiology or orthopedics. With the right synergy, all of the doctors are inter-referring and enhancing their practices.
- Ancillary Services – Working with the physician community is no different than working for a Fortune 500 in that, especially in this environment, people are trying to maximize profits to stay ahead of the curve. The buzz word within the physician community over the past five year is “Ancillary Services.” Traditionally, hospitals were the main benefactor of such services. Ancillary services include MRI’s, sleep labs, physical therapists, outpatient surgery centers, and imaging centers. Doctors are more recently looking for extra medical office space where they can install ancillary services and other diagnostic treatment areas.
- Geographic Location – Until the last decade, doctors needed to be close to the hospital to round on large numbers of inpatients and perform mostly inpatient surgeries. Now procedures have been more frequently performed on an outpatient basis, and physicians can relocate their offices farther away from the hospital at usually lower lease rates. Many practices now have incorporated outpatient surgery facilities located at or nearby their office location.
- Exclusivity – Willingness of the landlord to restrict leasing to other physicians of similar specialty in the same building is common. While many physicians view this as an important concession, it probably is not that important in the long run. After all, there is really nothing a physician group can do if a competitor wants to relocate across the street. This idea is typically of greater importance in rural or less populated areas where a new hospital is being established.
- Signage - Building monument or signage to distinguish a medical organization or practice is an important feature. Local restrictions often restrict the size and location of business signage in a given area, but often the developer can offer “top of building” signs for major anchor tenants.
- Price – Everyone is looking for price in today’s market, especially physician groups that are in their office more than in the hospital. For a doctor to move off-campus, the offer must be aggressive. For an example, Memorial Hermann is offering a few of our clients below market rental rates with above market build-out allowances. In other locations, they are offering full-service gross rental rates, which is coming back into vogue as hospitals rely heavily on cost control their costs to improve their bottom-line.
