Medical Office Industry Preparing for Change

DALLAS-Healthcare real estate experts from coast to coast and border to border will be in Dallas/Fort Worth for a first-time national event, RealShare Medical Office. The two-day session will be filled with trend-setting details about the rapidly growing industry and unique networking opportunities with decision-makers in the healthcare field.”Medical office is an area that’s really continuing to grow and expand. It stands out when everything else is standing still or going backwards,” says Richard Kelley, director of the RealShare Conference Series, part of Incisive Media Events. RealShare Medical Office will be held Nov. 13 and 14 at the Four Seasons Resort & Club Dallas at 4150 N. MacArthur Blvd. in Irving. To date, 175 professionals have signed up for the event, which opens with a golf tournament on the Byron Nelson’s home turf and a cocktail reception.The next day will be spent analyzing the industry, trends and its future under a new US president. In an Up Close interview, Ron Long, CFO and executive vice president of Dallas-based Texas Health Resources, will discuss industry trends and patterns for hospital and healthcare real estate. Among the issues to be addressed are monetization and creating new capital inflows for non-profit and profit healthcare systems, including possible changes by the new US president and Democratic-controlled Congress.With a new administration about to be seated, the healthcare industry’s future in 2009 goes under the microscope during a RealShare tradition, a town hall meeting. Murray Wolf, publishers of Healthcare Real Estate Insights, will moderate for a panel made up of Philip J. Camp, managing director of New York City-based Shattuck Hammond Partners LLC; Malcolm Sina, president and CEO of the Dasco Cos. LLC of Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Jason Dodd, president of Dallas-based Cirrus Group LLC; and Jeffrey Land, vice president of Catholic Healthcare West, headquartered in San Francisco.RealShare Medical Office, as with any real estate event these days, will include an in-depth look at the capital markets, specifically geared to MOB development and acquisition. Leading industry experts will discuss how the product’s image has changed in the past two years with lenders, financing strategies for on-campus and off campus and whether or not alternative funding sources will still be available next year or will there be a credit void.The agenda also includes sessions dedicated to the synergies between seniors housing and MOBs, investment sales and monetization of real estate. “We are trying to make it compelling to people who are well versed in medical real estate and those who are just putting their toe in the water a little bit,” Kelley explains. “We have tried, and succeeded, to attract as many hospital real estate executives and financing sources as possible to cast a wide net. Even though it’s an industry niche, it has a broad playing field.”Kelley points out healthcare systems don’t depend on the capital markets in quite the same way as traditional commercial real estate. But, it doesn’t mean they will escape an impact from the capital markets crunch. “However, it’s a business that in the past has shown it’s more recession-resistant and even more recession-proof than other aspects of real estate,” concludes Kelley, who heads up the conference series, which is part of Real Estate Media in New York City, a division of UK-based Incisive Media.