Baltimore’s Medical Office Market Showing Signs of Improvement

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Cassidy Turley’s 2014 Baltimore Medical Office Report

Good news for Baltimore’s medical office market. According to the latest report from Cassidy Turley, the market is showing signs of improvement.

Cassidy Turley released its 2014 Baltimore Medical Office Report last week. It said that healthcare has long been a primary economic driver for the Baltimore metro area. Research organizations and hospital operators, such as Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland Medical System and MedStar Health, have played important roles in the region’s recovery from the latest recession. With more than 250,000 employees, Education & Health Services is the largest job sector in the Baltimore metro area. And it continues to add new jobs each year

The report also says that Baltimore’s growing population is demanding more medical services and is currently spending 18%-25% more on various categories of health care expenditures than the national average. These factors will all contribute to a vibrant and growing medical office real estate environment throughout the region.

According to Cassidy Turley, there are currently 10.1 million square feet of medical office space in the Baltimore metro area. The market is 88.3% occupied at the moment, with only 1.2 million square feet of vacant space, including newly built facilities. New construction has become a necessity, as medical office tenants are now looking for quality space to deliver their services.

“Limited new construction throughout the Baltimore region, as well as the growing demand for medical services, has helped stabilize vacancy rates in most of the area submarkets. This, in turn, has caused average asking rents to increase in various parts of the region, a clear signal that demand for medical space is strong in Baltimore,” Matthew Myers, senior research analyst at Cassidy Turley, said in a press statement.

Photo credits Cassidy Turley.