In spite of tight budgets and other economic challenges, the healthcare real estate market in the Memphis area remains on an upward trend, according to decision makers involved in the business.

Development and building expansion continues to grow in all areas of the Mid-South with emphasis on providing patients with multi-specialty services, convenience and accessibility.

The trend is expected to continue the next two to three years, according to Kelly Truitt, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis Memphis, LLC.

“There are plenty of opportunities for continued future expansion in the Mid-South,” Truitt said. “Larger projects led by area hospitals that have been recently completed will lead to smaller projects such as medical office buildings. There are in-fill areas around major campuses where primary care facilities could emerge. The locations are convenient and easy accessible.”

An example is Region One Health’s East Campus at 6555 Quince. The 110,000-square-foot building is under renovation and will house 50,000 square feet of clinical space, which will include a comprehensive imaging center, multi-specialty clinic, rehabilitation medicine center and reproductive clinic. The campus will open in phases throughout 2015, starting with the reproductive clinic, which will open later this month.

“Our goal for the facility is comprehensive integrated care,” said Bret Perisho, vice president of finance and chief business development officer for Region One Health. “The future in healthcare is to offer a one-stop-shop model that has the capability to provide multi-service specialties. We needed a centralized location that provided a full range of specialists. We don’t want patients to bounce around from place to place. We want them to have an efficient patient experience.”

Visibility and accessibility were factors in choosing the location for the East Campus, according to Perisho. The hospital system performed a study on driving habits. According to the study’s findings, 900,000 people can drive to the 6555 Quince location in 20 minutes or less.

“The East Campus is an easy access point,” Perisho said. “It’s easily accessible from Bill Morris Parkway, and over 150,000 cars drive by our building every day. There are many routes a person can take to get here. Even Mississippi residents can drive here quickly by driving into Memphis on Riverdale Road.”

Region One Health owns 40 acres of land west of the building. Space is there for over 1 million square feet of additional medical development. There are no immediate plans to develop the land, but Perisho can foresee a need for an outpatient surgery center or medical office group within the next five years.

Also in East Memphis is the Spence and Becky Wilson Children’s Hospital at 6225 Humpreys Boulevard. The 19,000-square-foot pediatric emergency room and diagnostics area opened earlier this year. Additional pediatric services will be available over the next several years, including a 12-bed inpatient unit, outpatient pediatric surgery and a pediatric eye center.

“We will have multi-specialty services on the top floor where parents can consult with various doctors for chronic issues,” said Anita Vaughn, the hospital's CEO and administrator. “We want to make it convenient for parents and their children by having doctors with different specialties located there under one roof.”

This accessible, multi-specialty expansion trend isn’t just happening in East Memphis. It’s occurring in all areas of the Mid-South from Olive Branch, Miss., to downtown Memphis.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare will open an $11 million medical office building downtown this fall. The 54,000-square-foot, three-story building at the northwest corner of Adams Avenue and Dunlap across from Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital will provide about 200 offices for physicians, freeing up clinical space in the hospital and nearby clinical buildings, said Dave Rosenbaum, vice president of facilities management for Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.

“Our goal is to provide the most patient-friendly care we can,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s better for our patients and for doctors if our medical services are located in one place. The patients can receive better care.”

Crosstown Concourse, formerly the vacant Sears Crosstown building at 495 North Watkins, is scheduled to open downtown in January 2017. The 1.1-million-square-foot, $200 million health and wellness development will house tenants from various healthcare-related entities such as Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, ALSAC/St. Jude and Southern College of Optometry. Additionally, the Church Health Center will be the building’s largest tenant, occupying 150,000 square feet.

“We have a good working relationship with hospital entities,” said Marvin Stockwell, communications director for the Church Health Center. “We can be the connector and meeting ground so hospitals can provide shared services, which in turn provides better health. We will be able to provide shared efficiencies with this space and become better connected to the people we serve. ”

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare plans to relocate some of its non-clinical administration functions to Crosstown Concourse, but the locations haven’t been determined, Rosenbaum said.

Olive Branch will be a key area for medical expansion in the Mid-South for the next few years due to vast residential growth, according to Parrish Taylor, vice president of retail services for CB Richard Ellis, LLC.

Methodist Healthcare opened Methodist Desoto Hospital, a five-story, 100-bed building, in 2013. The area is underserved in medical development, according to Truitt.

“There isn’t as much mature growth in Olive Branch,” he said. “There is lots of surrounding land for development such as medical office buildings.”

There is also an emerging need for urgent care facilities in the area, according to Taylor.

“Compared to the rest of the country, the Memphis area is underserved in the availability of urgent care facilities,” he said. “I see this area of the medical market expanding as residential growth occurs and as long as there is growth in the local economy and in the retail segment.”

Eastern Desoto County is a key submarket where there has been fast residential growth and medical has struggled to keep up, he said.

“It will, though. You will see more of these medical retail operations opening up in the next year,” Taylor said. “These urgent care facilities are convenient, cheaper, easily accessible and they are quick to get in and out of.”

This ties in with the trend that smaller medical projects may be on the rise.

“We will see continued growth in the Mid-South, just not on as grand of a scale, but the projects will not be any less significant,” Truitt said.