"We believe that health care real estate is always going to be in great demand and we wanted to be positioned to serve our clients in the marketplace more capably," says Scott Taylor, president of the locally based Carter. Taylor tells GlobeSt.com the partnership, known as Carter-Align, is part of a strategic growth plan Carter has been working on for the past year. Part of that growth plan, he explains, involves a higher visibility in and penetration of the healthcare market.

But rather than growing the healthcare presence organically, Carter's management opted to pair their company's abilities with another. "We had conversations with several groups, but culturally and from a position of shared values and geographic coverage, the relationship between Carter and Align made the most sense," Taylor says.

The relationship means a full-service offering for hospitals and other medical clients requiring strategic management assistance for facilities planning, maintenance and other activities. Taylor says Align Healthcare's core offering offers strategic planning for health facilities. This could include master planning and physical plant planning. Carter, in the meantime, supports the effort through design, land planning and pricing and potentially, a mater plan. "Their focus is on the front end, strategic, relative to a hospital or health care system's long-term planning," Taylor adds. "We pick up on the back end."

The fact the alliance is informal also means clients aren't required to use Carter and Align Healthcare as a package deal. If clients want to work with one group from planning through implementation, the Carter-Align focus would be for them. But if clients are more comfortable working solely with Carter or Align Healthcare, that's fine as well, Taylor says.

As of now, no projects are in the works, though Taylor says the alliance is pursuing a number of opportunities. Though the alliance's focus is mainly in the southeast, Taylor says Carter-Align is also pursuing projects in the Midwest and Southwest. The Carter-Align alliance is operating out of Carter's headquarters at 171 17th Street in Atlanta.