In an industry as changeable as healthcare, few things are certain. But one thing is certain--there’s going to be more demand for healthcare for the foreseeable decades. That’s why we’re excited to bring together top Denver-area healthcare real estate experts at Everything You Need to Know: Healthcare Real Estate at the Four Seasons Hotel Denver next Thursday, Dec. 11, starting at 8am.

NexCore Group SVP Tim Oliver, who will speak at the event, tells us that metro Denver has experienced strong healthcare facility development in the last five years, but that doesn’t preclude future healthcare development opportunities. Because the city and metro area are growing, he says healthcare systems are continuing to look at bringing outpatient services closer to where patients live and work, and new master-planned residential communities are being planned that will look for healthcare services. Maybe not a boom, but steady demand for new facilities over time.

NexCore has been very active this year, finishing and breaking ground on a number of healthcare facilities nationwide, including high-growth locations in suburban DC, North Dakota and California. The company’s also a major owner in its hometown market of Denver, such as the Dry Creek Medical Campus in the Denver Tech center area, which includes a 20k SF ambulatory surgery center and a 57k SF MOB.

Also among our speakers, Milestone Project Management Rocky Mountain area manager David Peterson tells us that one of the current opportunities--but also a challenge--for owners and developers is revitalizing or repurposing underutilized or closed or abandoned retail locations to medical use. The demand for new facilities is rising as the population ages and more people are insured, and old retail can be new heathcare space.

The old format of big-box hospitals is giving way to clinics in retail locations such as Walmart and Target, and smaller, more focused facilities with multiple locations for ease of access, David says. But the major challenge will be exactly how to configure the healthcare facilities (MOBs, hospitals, clinics) of the future—a future of hospitals without many beds, telemedicine, and an aging population.

Health Care REIT SVP Mike Noto (snapped with granddaughter Olivia), another of our speakers, tells us that landlords need to position themselves with health systems as not merely a landlord but as a strategic partner. “Not all health systems view real estate as a strategic tool, but rather see it as a necessary evil,” he says. “To be an effective partner, those in the MOB world have to demonstrate to the healthcare system C-Suites that their focus should be less on the core patient tower and more on outpatient facilities. These outpatient facilities serve as outposts for health systems to gain market share.” To learn more, please join us for Bisnow's Everything You Need to Know: Healthcare Real Estate at the Four Seasons Hotel Denver next Thursday, starting at 8am.  Sign up here!