NorthMarq Takes on Creighton Lease Outsourcing

OMAHA, NE-Creighton Medical Associates, a physician group affiliated with Creighton University, has hired NorthMarq Healthcare Advisory Group to manage leases for 15 clinics here. The Minneapolis-based firm, a division of NorthMarq, will provide lease administration, lease structuring, strategic planning and site selection for about 87,000 square feet.

Steve Brown, leader of the group, says the university has clinics on its property that are not part of this outsourcing deal. “They own those properties. This deal include clinics outside the university, including a 12,000-square-foot lease in Dundee, NE.”

He says the company will be able to work with Creighton on real estate strategy and help track lease administration. This type of outsourcing by medical entities has increased as the economy forces efficiency, Brown says. “If we talk about trying to place a 10,000-square-foot clinic two or three years ago when we were in a boom, you could not make sense of the economics, and that continues. You need to have someone tied in to understand the opportunities as the markets ebb and flow, and in-house you just don’t have the ability to be out there and have the connection to the market on a regular basis,” Brown says.

His company will evaluate how Creighton can plan future use of its leasing, Brown says. Space planning has been gradually getting more patient centric, he says. “Twenty years ago if someone got sick, you go where the doctor is. Now you’re dealing with Centers of Excellence, Comprehensive Care models. In the past, you put a medical office building next to a hospital, you’d do fine. Now you want to have off-campus medical.”