Michael Schlesinger, founder of Beverly Hills-based CambraRealty, said it recently when he got one of the highest prices persf ever paid in Los Angeles for a medical office sale in hisheadquarters city. And, a financial adviser to Nationwide HealthProperties also said it when the Newport Beach, CA-based REITclosed on part of a deal to buy up to $2 billion ofmedical office properties over the next three years.

Schlesinger sold a 63,276-sf medical office building at120 S. Spalding Dr. to New York City's LeFrak Organizationfor $55 million a little more than a year after a joint venture ofCambra and Angelo Gordon & Co. bought the property for $42million.

Nationwide adviser Philip Camp, managing director with New YorkCity-based investment adviser Shattuck Hammond, says medicalproperties are a highly desirable asset class in any economiccycle, but "they are in even greater demand today because they areconsidered a safe haven when other commercial real estate segmentsfalter.