In short, retail office space is the most common and reliable, followed by a condo/suite, and then a ground-up building. But that's probably not what you're looking for.
Assuming you're a General Practitioner, and are really trying to gauge as to where to open your practice, consider a few things:
1. The Demographics of the area
2. Your Competition – #'s & Strengths
3. The Current & Expected Growth
4. City Planners and Developers – What they're saying. Where the money's going.
5. The location as place to live, as a place to raise a family
All of which are included within your Dentagraphic Report –
As you narrow down with you Real Estate agent, however, you'll want key-in around areas that have:
· Coming Developments & Shopping Centers
- Large-chain grocery stores will constantly drive growth to an area
- Stores warranting weekly trips (gyms, grocery stores, drug stores)
- Ever-popular food chains (McDonalds, Chic-Fil-A) have an extremely low fail rate
· High Traffic Counts
- Essentially large-chain stores and food chains bring one thing – traffic
- More traffic = more eyes on your practice
- More traffic = more convenient for a customer to visit
· Schools
- With over 1000 students, parents and kids both find a nearby practice convenient
- A yearly-changing student body keeps the population fresh
- Mom's who frequent, who make 70-80% of the healthcare decisions in each household
Don't forget to keep the key demographic variables in mind, however. As lucrative as a 2000 square foot retail space nearby a Wal-Mart may be, it may carry a Dentist/Population ratio of 1/1000, with a population you may not wish to treat.
