Medical Office Development in Boston Submarket

[Dan Hennessy]

Major medical development project coming to Mass. South Shore

The announcement in February of the redevelopment of downtown Quincy, MA, reinforces my belief that “all healthcare is local” and reinforces the trends towards high quality real estate in local communities. Less than 10 miles from Boston, Quincy is a historically blue-collar city due to its manufacturing and industrial base, yet has diversified considerably and now has a substantial mix of professional residents in healthcare, finance, education, and insurance.

This major medical building development will be the ‘jewel’ of a $1.6 billion downtown redevelopment that has been ongoing since 2011, and is aimed at providing high quality integrated care, both primary and specialty, closer to the residents of the city.

Medical real estate has historically been recession-resistant due to the fact these properties provide the ‘room and board’ for healthcare tenants delivering a basic necessity for their communities, healthcare. It is notable that Quincy is located a mere 10 miles from some of the top academic medical centers in the world; Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital to name a few. That Brigham Health, a dominant hospital system, saw the opportunity to partner with the South Shore Hospital system in Quincy, is a testament to the shifting preference for delivering quality and convenient care locally. Having worked in the Healthcare field in Massachusetts for more than 23 years and having lived on the South Shore, I can tell you how much of a hassle it is to drive or commute via public transit into all of these top academic centers in Boston. This development will create higher quality healthcare delivery in Quincy and provide opportunities for local multi-tenant and single tenant medical properties that are located in what will be this new and evolving healthcare ecosystem In Quincy. I’ll be monitoring the surrounding off-campus landscape along with development and valuation trends.