Medical Office Market Showing Signs of Improvement

FORT MYERS, FL—Three recent medical office lease deals at the South Metro Professional Center have brokers here saying that the market is showing signs of improvement after several years of little activity.

For the past two years, the medical office market has lagged the improving commercial sectors in the area that have seen office rents continue to rise. The leases, all completed in the fourth quarter of 2014, absorbed a total of 6,700 square feet in the 47,000-square-foot center, located at 13650-13710 Metropolis Avenue in Fort Myers.

Bill Mankin and Jim Tamblyn, CCIM, of Colliers International Southwest Florida negotiated two of the lease transactions and represented the landlord in the third.

“This activity is significant because overall, leasing of medical office space in Fort Myers has been very slow over the past couple of years,” Tamblyn says. “To have three new leases signed in one center in a relatively short amount of time indicates to us that medical office tenants see that lease rates have bottomed out and will only be rising from here.”

“This center's proximity to Interstate 75 and to the Gulf Coast Medical Center hospital makes it particularly attractive to medical office tenants,” Mankin adds.

Colliers International Southwest Florida handled the lease transactions for Florida Hand Center, which leased 2,016 square feet of space, and Clinical Physiology Associates, Inc., which signed a 2,842-square-feet lease. Solutions in Psychology, Inc., also recently leased 1,520 square feet of space at the South Metro Professional Center.