Looking to the future of healthcare and MOB real estate

Over 150 commercial real estate professionals were at Chicago’s historic University Club for the 5th annual Healthcare and Medical Office Conference, hosted by REjournals. The day provided an excellent opportunity for networking, as well as panel discussions with industry experts. On more than one occasion, conference speakers prognosticated on where the healthcare and medical office building sector was headed.

Stevhanie Howard, a commercial broker with Foresite Realty Partners, expertly emceed the morning’s schedule, beginning with the keynote address from York Chan, CHFM, CHC, SASH. As vice president, facilities services for Advocate Health Care, Chan brought a unique perspective to the direction that medical real estate is trending.

“By 2020, 40 percent of all of [Advocate’s] construction will be modular,” Chan said at one point.

The first panel, State of MOB/Healthcare Market, was moderated by Sharon Carter, director, healthcare real estate at Navigant. Joining her were David Arnold, executive vice president at Irgens; Fred Campobasso, managing director at Navigant; Lewis Kaplan, commercial real estate broker at DK Realty Partners, LLC; Ryan Nelson, senior vice president at Foresite Realty Partners and Robb Strukoff, CPA, director at WIPFLI.

The second panel attempted to tackle the Segmented Solutions in Healthcare & Medical Office. Ted Yi, partner at Quarles & Brady LLP moderated the discussion, which featured Sarah Cogswell, senior vice president at JLL; Carlissa Dunteman, vice president at SomerCor 504, Inc.; Natalie Sproull, assistant vice president at Capital One Healthcare; Tim Swanson, chief design officer at Skender and Jonathan Swindle, founder and president of Waveland Property Group.

“I can imagine walking into what was once a big box retail store, that is now a world-class medical facility, that we delivered in a matter of weeks instead of years,” Swanson said.