As Seen in the Charlotte Observer:

DEVELOPMENT

Ballantyne now a medical hot spot

Presbyterian deal highlights a suburban trend for providers 

by: DOUG SMITH, Business Editor of The Charlotte Observer

 

You expect to see a lot of medical offices around hospitals, but 250,000 square feet amid the offices and shops of Ballantyne?

That's what the total will be when Presbyterian Healthcare occupies a new 48,000-square-foot building late next spring at Ballantyne Corporate Park.

The Charlotte provider of health services will lease The Bissell Cos.' Winslow Medical Building on Ballantyne Commons Parkway in Ballantyne Corporate Park.

The Ballantyne office park developer has experienced a "tremendous response to our medical product," which already is at 176,000 square feet, said Ned Curran, president of The Bissell Cos.

 

The amount in the 2,000-acre greater Ballantyne mixed-use development totals a quarter of a million square feet, he said, when you include Carolinas HealthCare System's facility in Ballantyne Commons East and other medical space. What's happening is health care providers are thinking more like retailers when deciding where to go next, said real estate analyst Frank Warren of Warren & Associates. "You have a defined trade area, and you are trying to serve those consumers," he said.

Also like retailers, Warren said, "health care providers are looking at demographics: They want to tap into household growth in the suburbs, and they want to be where the families are, where the seniors are." A big part of the strategy is seeking out locations where household income is above average and getting close to people who need more medical services than a typical consumer.

 

Ballantyne seems well situated in part because of the relatively affluent neighborhoods in and around it at U.S. 521 and Interstate 485 in south Charlotte.

And, Warren notes, medical providers are aware of the Sun City Carolina Lakes residential development emerging about 10 miles south of Ballantyne on U.S. 521 in Lancaster County, S.C. That community of 55 and older residents covers about 1,550 acres and is planned to include up to 4,400 homes.

 

Accessibility is a key factor working in favor of suburban developments like Ballantyne. The south Charlotte park's strategic location near an I-485 interchange is convenient to both Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville and Presbyterian Hospital Matthews. That makes it easy for Ballantyne medical providers to refer patients who need a greater level of service to one of those facilities, Warren said. Consumers, too, are a major influence. Today, busy families expect medical services to be as convenient as the grocery store, hair salon or fitness center.

 

Presbyterian Healthcare already has offices in 535-acre Ballantyne Corporate Park. The additional building will push its total square footage there to 67,000, according to The Bissell Cos. Suburban facilities are cost effective for medical providers, because land prices there typically are lower than in the central city and expensive-to-build parking decks usually aren't needed. The Winslow Medical Building will house Presbyterian's primary care services, a surgery center with three operating rooms, an endoscopy suite and a sleep center. It also will have MRI and other imaging capabilities, said spokeswoman Marcia Meredith.

Bissell Development, a division of The Bissell Cos., developed the building. LS3P Associates Ltd. designed it, and Turner Construction Co. built it.

This is the second large medical facility disclosed recently by Presbyterian Healthcare.