Gaithersburg, MD – Gaithersburg’s central location to the four existing hospitals in Montgomery County, as well as a fifth one in the planning phase, makes it a prime destination for health-care practitioners looking to grow in the county by serving thousands of newly insured patients in these markets.
Says Scheer Partners Vice President Matt Brady, “We believe that Gaithersburg’s midway point between the various hospitals throughout Montgomery County will generate interest from many different types of medical practitioners. Doctors and others preparing for new federal regulations that go into effect over the next few years may gain a strategic advantage by securing space in a submarket we are confident will benefit from additional health-care services.”
One shining example of this trend is the Cancer Center at Gaithersburg, which got completed in July of 2011. “As we evaluated options to build our new state-of-the-art cancer center, we chose Gaithersburg because of its central location in Montgomery County, easy access off I-270 for residents, and our goal to elevate the level of cancer care, especially in the field of radiation oncology,” says Anu Gupta, MD, who runs the Cancer Center at Gaithersburg.
From a health-care delivery standpoint, this area is underserved, Scheer Partners executives say. To that end, the Rockville-based company, the leading provider of fully integrated commercial real estate services for the health science industry in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas, announces today that it is currently marketing – and expects strong demand for – nearly 75,000 square feet of medical-related space in Gaithersburg.
North Bethesda-based Guardian Realty Investors, for one, recently hired Scheer Partners to lease its 50,549-square-foot building at 501 N. Frederick Ave., where 35,000 square feet of fully improved medical-office space will become available by March 31 of 2012, when Kaiser Permanente expects to consolidate its local operations at a separate Gaithersburg facility.
Scheer Partners Vice President Nate Crowe and Associate Jamie Rash, who are handling the marketing duties for 501 N. Frederick Ave., say that they are initially targeting pediatricians, dermatologists, internal-medicine professionals, and obstetricians/gynecologists, among others, to make use of the current medical suites that Kaiser Permanente will vacate.
Imaging centers, primary-care physicians and surgery centers could also benefit from the existing infrastructure and occupy this building with minimal construction costs. The landlord will break up the available space as tenants are secured, though the architect has identified potential suites ranging in size from 1,300 square feet to an entire 17,000-square-foot floor, Rash says.
Capitalizing on the need for medical space in Gaithersburg, Pasadena, Calif.-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities has a 26,000-square-foot building at 620 Professional Drive that is entirely available for lease and would make a good option for surgery centers and other providers, says Brady, who is marketing the space along with Robert Scheer, the company’s founder and president.
Similarly, the 53,000-square-foot building at 21 Firstfield Road, which already is home to several life sciences firms, is devoting about 7,000 square feet of space to specialized practitioners, says Brady, who leases this facility on behalf of the Greater Washington Life Sciences Fund, a joint venture of Scheer Partners and the Chevy Chase-based JBG Cos.
Finally, small health-care providers have the opportunity to buy medical suites at 438 N. Frederick Ave., a 66,000-square-foot building owned by a group of private investors where roughly 6,000 square feet is available for purchase. Brady and Crowe market this space for the landlord.
The continued growth in the upper parts of the county, the thousands of newly insured patients resulting from federal legislation taking effect over the next few years, and Gaithersburg’s “midway location” between the area’s major hospitals, make this area especially well suited for general practitioners and specialty groups looking for secondary locations or to gain a foothold in Montgomery’s expanding medical markets.