In the latest iteration among floundering commercial retail spaces, landlords are courting healthcare tenants to fill empty storefronts that used to be occupied by department stores and boutiques. Most existing retail spaces have convenient neighborhood locations with enough local traffic to encourage a visit. According to a recent LA Times report, a network of dental offices in California has found early success with this emerging “med-tail” (medical retail) model, treating both scheduled and walk-in patients. Spas, fitness centers, weight loss clubs, and other wellness offerings are increasingly moving into formerly unoccupied storefronts across the nation as well. Observers believe there’s a whole new category of consumer-facing health services that is emerging and will only accelerate, especially alongside the surging uptake of glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, which are gaining market share as indications and coverage for the prescription drugs expand.
Urgent care is here for you: “Urgent care was one of the first medical-retail uses because community shopping centers—particularly those with a food/drug/mass merchandise draw—attract the same demographics who frequent urgent care,” says Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM. “As more health and wellness services are added to those settings, urgent care becomes even more complementary to the tenant mix.”