Doctors moving in – Physicians drawn to areas where they can work, live

In more new neighborhoods, the doctor is in.

Physicians in Colorado are among those nationwide opening practices in or near new urban villages such as Lowry in Denver and Englewood’s CityCenter.

By Christine Tatum
Denver Post Business Writer

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2039409,00.html

In Lowry alone, there are 17 medical-related firms among 2,800 households, 10 schools and a pedestrian-friendly shopping center.

Experts in this emerging segment of medical real estate say there are great benefits when doctors move into communities where homes, offices, shops and transit lines are within walking distance of each other.

Among their observations:

# Patients receive better care at less cost and in more comfortable settings.

# Medical facilities pose little nuisance to residents and attract more visitors to neighborhood retail centers than do law offices, software companies or other professional uses.

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# Physicians benefit when they own the buildings they work in because they’re making long-term real estate investments. If they buy a house in the same neighborhood, they often report better quality of life.

"The benefits are easy to see and hard to ignore," said James Flack, a Colorado Springs consultant specializing in the management of medical practices. Flack helped organize clinics that have popped up in Union Medical Campus, in a mixed-use neighborhood near Colorado Springs.

Hospitals are recognizing the upside of this medical migration. To stem losses in revenue, more of them are teaming with physicians to open off-campus clinics and outpatient surgery centers.

For example, Swedish Hospital is working with a group of doctors to open the Rocky Mountain Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Surgical Center in Englewood. The practices will be across the street from the new CityCenter Englewood, a 55-acre mixed-use neighborhood on the site of the old Cinderella City shopping center. The new medical office building that holds both centers will be built along a light-rail line and across the street from 438 residential units.

"They will bring an energy, activity and good jobs to support the urban fabric we’re trying to knit," said Englewood community development director Bob Simpson. "They are going to attract people who are willing to shop during the day, but they won’t be open to bother the homeowners at night. Doctors are a perfect match for these urban concepts."

Nowhere is that more apparent in metro Denver than the city’s burgeoning Lowry neighborhood. Since breaking ground in 1994, the mixed-use redevelopment of the former Lowry Air Force Base has become home to 17 medical-related operations, including the Bonfils Blood Center, Denver Arthritis Clinic, Lowry Dialysis and the Center for Esthetic & Restorative Dentistry.

The Lowry Medical Center, a $15 million, 80,000-square-foot medical and outpatient surgery complex, is expected to open by the end of next year in the neighborhood’s Crosswinds Office Park. The complex’s developer, Denver-based medical real estate firm Development Solutions Group, predicts that the doctors’ offices will generate almost 175,000 unique visits each year.

"That’s unbelievable exposure for all of those stores nearby," said Andrew Shearer, managing director of real estate for Development Solutions Group. "Everyone has reason to like what they see."

Dr. Noah Makovsky, a pediatrician at Lowry, couldn’t agree more. While working as a resident in Los Angeles, Makovsky said it often took him an hour to complete the 8.5-mile drive between his former home and the hospital where he worked. Now he lives only five blocks away from his Lowry office and is often home to play with his three children by 6 p.m.

"My wife and I cannot see ourselves moving away from this environment," he said. "There are so many benefits that come from being surrounded by so many like-minded people who want to live, work and shop in the same place. There is no question that this move has been good for my business."

Outpatient procedures delivered in off-campus clinics can cost patients 40 percent to 60 percent less than those performed in hospitals, said Dr. William Jessee, president and chief executive officer of the Medical Group Management Association.

When doctors own their facilities, they get to set their own schedules and don’t have to worry about being bumped from operating rooms to make way for emergency cases, he said.

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