More Medical Facilities Moving Into Malls Thanks To Cheap Rent, Demographic Changes

Image courtesy of Dennis S. Hurd

Baby boomers are getting older and need more medical care, millennials’ kids need vaccinations and checkups, and malls have relatively cheap rent and plentiful parking, and need more steady tenants. What does all of this add up to? An expansion of health care facilities in malls to more than the urgent care facilities that we might be used to.

If this hasn’t happened yet in your area, get ready to experience it soon. It makes sense: older malls have lots of cheap empty space, and plentiful parking. Medical offices in malls both draw customers in and ensure that the center has a steady, long-term tenants that offer a service customers can’t buy on Amazon.

A recent example is a new addition to Runway at Playa Vista, a mixed-use center in Los Angeles. The building features stores, restaurants, entertainment, condos…and an outpatient center for Cedars-Sinai Hospital that offers important services for middle-aged patients, like cardiology and orthpedics.

“I think from Cedars’ perspective, that’s how you capture the younger demographic,” the vice president for health care services for real estate services giant CBRE told Bloomberg. Yes, it’s not all hearts and knees at the outpatient clinic, and spreading medical services out to different sites makes practices easier to get to and more visible.

The Mall of the Future Will Offer Dinner, Movies, and a Colonoscopy [Bloomberg News]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.