Real Estate Journal — Commercial Real Estate Law — December 14 - 27, 2018 — 9A
www.marejournal.com
M id A tlantic
C ommercial R eal E state L aw By Jessica T. Zolotorofe, Ansell Grimm & Aaron, PC Urgent Care Use
T
he popularity of ur- gent care walk-in clin- ics is on the rise, now
their local communities,” said Elizabeth Corey, GoHealth Associate General Counsel of Real Estate. As their demand grows, ur- gent care facilities have become desirable tenants for landlords all over the Country. Benefits to landlords In order to be competitive in the market, urgent care centers are expending significant funds to offer cutting edge, progres- sive software and equipment, which makes for a large initial investment in addition to stan- dard build-out costs that might be incurred by another retail tenant. Sometimes structural
upgrades are necessary to re- inforce floors for weight of files and equipment; x-ray shielding may be required; tenants may have to upgrade the electrical load or ventilation systems for their use; and privacy compli- ance is an additional cost. As such, urgent care centers often look for longer lease terms to make their investments worth- while, a substantial benefit to landlords. “Medical tenants are what we call “internet-resistant” ten- ants,” said Michael Ambrosi, Chief Operating Officer for ARCTrust III, a private Real Estate Investment Trust. For a
landlord, there is comfort in the fact that online sales impacting other retail uses does not affect medical use. While market fluctuation causes some retail tenants to suffer during reces- sions, there is always a need for medical. Another attractive feature is that the nature of the use and hours of operation invite con- siderable foot traffic. Patients who are not feeling well or have sustained an injury are often accompanied by at least one other adult, who may want to do some shopping or grab a cup of coffee while waiting. Accord- ing to Urgent Care Association
of America, urgent care centers report an average of fifty pa- tient care visits per day. National tenants help any retail center by providing rec- ognizable names, and “there is further value in these deals when the tenants have an asso- ciation with a hospital or larger group,” said Ambrosi. As with any tenant, though, urgent care does not come with- out its obstacles. Considerations for landlords Because they cater to ill and elderly patients, parking near the facilities is always continued on page 16A
offering ki- osk or online registration, sho r t wa i t times, quick in-office test results, and e l e c t r o n i c transmission of health re-
Jessica Zolotorofe
cords and scripts. There are over seven thousand six hun- dred urgent care centers oper- ating in the United States, and according to Markets Insider, the profitability of urgent care clinics has increased substan- tially from $11.8 billion in revenue in 2011 to more than $15 billion in 2017. Given society’s appreciation for efficiency and convenience, urgent care centers provide a valuable healthcare alterna- tive to primary care physicians and emergency rooms. In ad- dition to speed of service, the evening and weekend hours offered by most urgent care fa- cilities are invaluable to many patients. “Having young boys, we are not strangers to bumps and bruises. When my son fell off the playground and badly scraped the side of his face on a weekend, the only other choice would have been an all-day trip to the E.R., so we were grateful for the urgent care option,” said Allison Muser, mother of two. Urgent care’s appeal is not just to the younger population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the next few de- cades, all baby boomers will be over the age of sixty-five, which will expand the size of the older population so that one in every five United States residents will be retirement age. With age often comes the increased need for medical attention and urgent care facilities are now staking their claim to loca- tions near residential areas to account for the rising elderly population. One of the Country’s fastest- growing and largest urgent care companies, operating approximately 100 locations throughout the U.S., takes extra care to ensure conve- nient locations for its patients. “GoHealth Urgent Care and its health system partners conveniently place centers in retail locations where people work, live and play. We want to ensure that our centers are easily accessible to patients in
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