Medical Buildings Attractive to Investors

HOUSTON-Malcolm Gluckman of the Houston office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. tells GlobeSt.com that interest from investors has been focused lately on medical buildings. “Investors like the permanency of the tenants,” says Gluckman, who credits a heavy build-out cost that is usually shared by the tenant as reasons for longer occupancies.

Gluckman says the average medical building build out is $35 to $45 per sf. Evidence of this trend is seen in the recent sales of buildings in Houston and the south Texas city of Victoria. A medically-oriented company bought the Houston building while the Victoria building is an existing medical facility.

Galveston-based insurance company Westcap Corp. recently sold its 58,000-sf office building at 2575 West Bellfort in Houston to DNA sequencing company, Seawright Inc. Houston-based Seawright plans to occupy part of the building for their operations and lease out the rest.