Sheila Schmidt

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PHOENIX—The need for healthcare services in areas where there islittle to no inventory or land for outpatient centers continues togrow. In response, developers are converting non-healthcarebuildings into suitable buildings. One example of this trend isMeridian, a Marcus and Millichap affiliate.

"We are heavily focused on purchasing properties and renovatingthem into mostly outpatient surgical centers," says Sheila Schmidt,VP of Real Estate Development at Meridian, tells GlobeSt.com."Sometimes we have to completely break down the property and do anextensive renovation and other times, we only need to performpartial renovations."

With most of the redevelopment activity focused in the westernUnited States in states such as California and Arizona, thisconversion of properties is the most direct and creative way ofgetting a client into challenging areas. Outpatient centers allowthe patients to go home within a few hours instead of paying for anin-hospital stay where procedure costs and copays are, on average,42% to 58% higher.