HEALTHIEST SECTOR?

No flat-lining here. MOBs may be the strongest segment of CRE. Just ask GVA Cawley Healthcare Real Estate Advisory Group managing director Chris Barnet, who's carving (bad medical pun) out a niche for development, leasing, and management like a $100M Frisco medical mixed-use project named Sports Village USA.

Our own Vanna Whites, Chris and director of landlord services David Dees (new to the team) show us renderings. Just east of Pizza Hut Park, the  62-acre project features the  145k SF Fieldhouse USA with 12 basketball courts, the area's largest indoor soccer field and other athletic activities, David says. Work is underway on an 18k SF Eagle Gymnastics Academy (slated for summer) and a 21k SF MOB(first building this fall). Build-out plans include 100k SF of MOB, retail, office, hospitality, apartments, and more sports facilities.

Fieldhouse USA (designed by Boka Powell) is the lynchpin in Sports Village USA, Chris tells us, and will attract rehab and orthopods in the area. The project has morphed: Chris says he's in talks now for a hospital system to JV in Frisco with Tempe-based Athletes Performance, an elite training facility and tenant within Fieldhouse USA. Stay tuned for details. David says MOBs are spurring mixed-use  development. (Across the street will be a Hampton Inn and Suites, breaking ground this summer.)

On Wednesday at the  84k SF  Medical Center at Calloway Creek  in North Richland Hills—on the 80-acre former North Hills Mall location—the ribbon was cut on the pedestrian bridge linking the site to North Hills Hospital. Also, construction started on a new hike/bike trail. Facilities in the works there include senior health, day surgery, and cardiac rehab with plans for more MOBs. David says 42k SF  of the facility (developed by Jordania Operations  of Culver City, Calif.) has already been preleased. Chris and David are also marketing a former 17k SF clinic   at 2909 Lemmon Ave. in Dallas as well as a 50k SF MOB and 20k SF medical retail center in Mansfield.

Chris says mid-sized MOB projects are in the “middle of our fairway,” making the addition of landlord rep a natural next step. Healthcare, specifically MOBs, is the darling of the finance community: "Banks want to talk to you about healthcare projects." Trained as an attorney, Chris gets up at 4:30 AM  daily (we thought that was bedtime) for a workout. The dad of four also spends his spare time as board prez for Town North YMCA. David volunteers with the Lee Park Junior Conservancy, Phoenix House Associates, and the Trinity Trust River Rats. (We're relieved to hear that he also has some fly-fishing excursions planned in Broken Bow  this summer, before a trip to Oregon in the fall.)