Question on Building (Medical)

[Alex Huang]

Hi:

I'm looking at the viability of building a commercial property for an existing practice. Unfortunately, the area I'm looking at lacks much on the market because ideally I would prefer to take an existing building and overhaul the inside, hence exploring the option to build now.

As I look at the existing commercial properties for sale, I see that there are designations on the property type. Usually it's a category like 'retail', 'warehouse', 'medical', etc.

Are there certain traits or characteristics for a building to be deemed medical? If so, what are they?

I know it's tough to provide an exact answer, but can someone who has built before give me a rough guess of what cost to build would be? I've identified some possible land to build on which is currently used for agriculture but has nearby utilities that it can be linked up to. Would something like $100-$150/sqft be feasible? What sort of fees can I expect for the other stuff (architect, engineer, permits, etc)? 

FWIW, I would be interested in ~6,000 sqft with the possibility of going a bit bigger to host other tenants.

Any input from people with experience on building (or dealing with medical buildings) would be greatly appreciated!