Location is Not the Only Thing: Picking the Right Medical Office Building for Your Practice and the Hidden Costs of ‘Good Enough’

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD / ACCESS Newswire / February 13, 2026 / As the medical office building (MOB) sector continues to outperform the rest of the real estate office market, healthcare providers and investors are increasingly recognizing that not all medical space delivers the same long-term value.

“The old adage of ‘location, location, location,’ is not 100 percent true anymore,” said Peter G. Papantoniou, Principal at Gittleson Zuppas Medical Realty, the leasing broker for Medical Pavilion I & II at National Harbor. “As practices expand, they need to consider long-term value – not just an office’s proximity to future patients, but also the flexibility they’ll have once they’re there.”

According to Papantoniou, one of the most common regrets in medical real estate is that when a new practice moves in, they quickly realize that there are more out-of-pocket expenses than originally planned.

Even if a healthcare system comes into a property with a large renovation budget, he said there is often a slew of soft costs or delays that can cut deep into a business’s margins. Some examples include:

• Permitting – When launching a renovation, healthcare providers need to forecast everything that will go into the project, beyond just the construction, equipment, and furniture project. Papantoniou stresses that electrical and plumbing work almost always cost more and take longer than one would think because of all the inspections and approvals that are required.

• Compliance limitations – Some buildings carry restrictions on services, hours, or equipment that aren’t uncovered until late in the process. At that stage, changing a care model often comes with significant cost or limited options.

• Scaling options – Many times a practice will move into a new medical office building with everything spec’d out perfectly. The problem is that what a practice needs today may be quite different in five years as treatments evolve and technologies advance. Ultimately, they might need to move again to accommodate a bigger or smaller space.

The key to finding a “forever home” for healthcare providers is to choose a medical office building that has these hidden costs covered – either by including critical non-medical personnel on site, offering flexible spaces and amenities such as gurney size elevators, or being up to code with regard to utilities.

“An effective site selection usually comes down to a provider’s vision for their practice,” Papantoniou said. “The more you know about your operation and build-out plans, the more you’ll be able to hold the line on costs and avoid unwanted surprises.”

Location and convenience are the main factors cited by patients when selecting a provider, which is great for revenue, but from a business perspective, the other side of the balance sheet is just as important.

“A medical office building that is truly move-in ready and won’t require additional investments from a tenant is usually the way to go,” Papantoniou said. “Between delivering positive patient outcomes and navigating changing reimbursement policies, healthcare providers have enough on their plate when they move. The last thing they need is to be hit with unexpected downtimes or sticker shock.”

About Medical Pavilion I & II at National Harbor
Located on Maryland’s iconic waterfront, Medical Pavilion I & II at National Harbor is a Class-A, 190,000-square-foot outpatient medical campus situated in a premier mixed-use location just eight miles from downtown Washington, D.C. The campus includes University of Maryland Medical System and Adventist HealthCare, offering healthcare providers a platform to grow their practices while delivering an exceptional patient experience.

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Kelly Reynolds, kreynolds@hoytorg.com, 310.343.3197
Andrew King, aking@hoytorg.com, 914.513.6895

SOURCE: Rethink Healthcare Real Estate

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire