Consolidation in the healthcare industry is spurring a need forlarge blocks of medical office space. Medical real estate investorand developer Meridian has adopted a large tenantstrategy for its latest acquisition. The property, a26,000-square-foot medical office building in Torrance, was 100%vacant at the time of the sale and was marketed as a redevelopmentopportunity. Instead of redeveloping the property into another use,Meridian saw that this would fulfill a need for large medicaloffice tenants, and it was able to secure a tenant for half of theproperty during escrow.

“As the healthcare industry continues to consolidate, we'reseeing much more demand for larger blocks of contiguous space,”R.J. Sommerdyke, director of acquisitions atMeridian, tells GlobeSt.com. “We felt particularly good about thisacquisition because it represented a unique opportunity to providetenants with one of the only options in the market for large blocksof ground-floor space, which is very desirable from a medicalperspective. We're already seeing our thesis being proven bysecuring a large tenant so early-on in the process.”