The New MOB: Leaner, Greener and More Digital

Jim Kornick

WASHINGTON, DC–There is an evolution underway in the medical office space that is similar to the competition, in some markets at least, between commodity A and A-plus office space and the trophy office space. The requirements expected of a medical office building are becoming more sophisticated and these changes are creating a schism in the market between the older stock and what Avison Young has dubbed in a new report, the modern medical office building. “In the midst of the ongoing transition in the healthcare MOB landscape, a sharpening of the lends on the modern MOB and the traditional MOB reveals differences that are striking,” according to the report “Evolution of Healthcare and its Impact on the Real Estate Landscape in the United States.”

Indeed, one doesn’t have to look that far in the past to see how much has changed for the medical office space. At one time landlords of professional office buildings were hesitant to accept medical tenants due to a negative perception from other office tenants. Even today certain tenants are deemed to be more desirable — namely those in “clean” medical practices such as ophthalmology or orthopaedics — compared with urology, dentistry, dermatology or urgent care practices and other practices that produce clinical wastes.