Health-care space growing quickly in Orlando, report finds

More medical-related space is scheduled to open in Orlando next year than in at least the previous four years combined, a new report shows.

Cushman & Wakefield this week released its first report tracking the medical office market for the four-county Orlando metropolitan area and projected that more than 2 million square feet of hospital and health-care office space will open in the region next year. Typically, the market gets about a fifth of that amount.

"Just about every hospital is adding new towers," said Anne Spencer, a Cushman & Wakefield director who compiled the report over the course of a year. "Most of the new construction over the next 12 to 24 months will be done by a hospital system, not by physicians' groups."

Construction includes new Florida Hospital facilities in Apopka and south of Winter Garden. In addition, about 100,000 square feet of medical office space is to come on line at Lake Nona's Medical City in southeast Orlando. The 46-page report includes construction of both hospitals and doctors' offices but focuses primarily on vacancies and lease rates for about 11 million square feet of medical offices within Orange, Lake, Seminole an Osceola counties.

The Orlando office of the real-estate brokerage expects to release quarterly reports tracking the amount of medical-related office space in the market an indication of the growth of that specialty market with construction at Medical City and the expansion of Florida Hospital throughout the region.

Tampa-based RJ King & Associates specializes in medical office properties in Tampa and Orlando and tracks the sector, but the new Cushman and Wakefield report goes further in looking at the emerging trend of retail-style medical offices that are closer to patients' homes than to hospitals.

"It's changing," Spencer said. "Historically, medical offices were always built near hospitals. But now, with the advancement of technology, we're seeing a lot of ambulatory surgery centers and other medical go into retail [space]."

The decentralization of medical space not only puts physicians closer to patients, it also allows them greater marketing opportunities by putting their names on buildings, she added.

In other parts of the country, Spencer said, the amount of medical space is contracting but population growth in the Orlando area has driven the need for more health-related real estate.

Owen Beitsch, senior principal for Real Estate Consultants in Orlando, said the health-care landscape is changing so quickly, from the national level down, that it's difficult to predict how medical needs will be met in the future. But it has been evident in recent years that physicians have had a growing presence in satellite offices in the suburbs, he added.

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Health-care space growing quickly in Orlando, report finds