Publisher’s letter (July 2006)

More exciting than soybeans

BOMA MOB SEMINAR DRAWS A HEALTHY CROP OF ATTENDEES

Dear Reader:

A few years ago, before I was fortunate enough to hire John Mugford as our editor, I was interviewing candidates for that vital editorial position. I had a great interview with one well-qualified candidate and offered her the job.

The candidate got back to me a few days later to say, no, sorry, she wasn’t interested. When I asked her why, she said, “I just can’t get excited about the topic of healthcare real estate.”

Fair enough. But, what really hurt was that she had passed on our offer to stay with her current employer: Soybean Grower magazine.

In other words, she found soybeans more compelling than healthcare real estate. Ouch.

Well, it all worked out because we found John shortly thereafter. But, if I ever need to be humbled, I just think of how we once paled in comparison to the electrifying world of soybeans.

I bring this up because I shared that story – and got big laughs – last month at the 2006 “Medical Office Buildings and Healthcare Facilities Seminar” in Dallas. The two-day even was presented by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International. It immediately preceded the full-blown “Commercial Real Estate Congress” held June 24-27.

I was somewhat skeptical about the value of attending the MOB seminar because I perceived BOMA as being primarily focused on property management. Frankly, we’re not all that concerned with that topic at Healthcare Real Estate Insights™. Our focus is healthcare real estate development, financing and investment – the deals, not the operations.

Fortunately, some of my more savvy industry contacts – particularly Jonathan Winer from Ernst & Young and Gordon Soderlund from DASCO Cos. – urged me to attend. Gordon even talked me into being part of a panel discussion.

I’m glad they did. Admittedly, there were a few sessions covering things like emergency preparedness and analyzing operating expenses that weren’t exactly my cup of tea. But, there were several sessions that touched on healthcare real estate development, financing and investment. So, I found it well worth the trip.

From an educational standpoint, there are not very many conferences worth attending if you’re interested in healthcare real estate. But I will be putting BOMA’s MOB seminar on my schedule from now on. (If you’re interested, next year’s conference will be in New York in mid-July.)

And if you missed this year’s BOMA MOB conference, not to worry. We will have extensive coverage of the relevant sessions in HREI™ in the coming months, starting with the article on Page 10 of this edition, “Are current ownership models fads?”

They tell me that attendance at the BOMA MOB seminar has grown each year. This year, the event attracted a record turnout of about 300 attendees, including quite a few developers, lenders and investors.

The growth in attendance has apparently paralleled the growing interest in healthcare real estate during the past several years. I guess more and more people are finding this industry to be even more exciting than soybeans.

Murray W. Wolf, Publisher