Publisher’s Letter (January 2007)

New year, new initiatives

HREI^™ PLANS AWARDS PROGRAM, RESOURCE GUIDE

Dear Reader:

Four years ago, we launched this newsletter because we saw an entrepreneurial opportunity – unsatisfied demand for healthcare real estate news, information and analysis. The market was small but growing, and there was every indication that it would continue to grow and expand for years – perhaps decades – to come.

Fortunately, we were right. In fact, we underestimated how far and how fast this real estate market would grow. The level of activity seems to expand every year.

HREI^™ has responded by continuously adding new products and services to better meet this growing demand. We began presenting healthcare real estate audio conferences in 2004; launched HREI^™ Executive Briefing^™, a second newsletter specifically for hospital and health system executives, in 2005; and started presenting Webinars in 2006. All of those programs have been highly successful, and we are continuing them this year.

Now, as we look to 2007, we are pleased to announce two more initiatives designed to deliver value for our subscribers.

HREI^™ Resource Guide

To our knowledge, hospital and health system executives have never had an objective resource they could turn to for industry data and advice about how to undertake medical real estate projects, nor a comprehensive directory of healthcare real estate professionals. Late this year, we will attempt to rectify that by publishing the first annual HREI^™ Healthcare Real Estate Resource Guide.

The HREI^™ Resource Guide – which will be available both in print and searchable online versions – will include detailed information, articles and tips that hospital and health system executives can use to maximize the probability of delivering successful projects. It will also include a comprehensive directory of healthcare real estate professionals – developers, lenders, investors, brokers, architects, engineers, contractors, etc. – with company background and complete contact information. The HREI^™ Resource Guide will be advertising supported and will be distributed free to thousands of hospital and health systems nationwide.

HREI^™ Awards

Aside from the rare healthcare facility that wins an award as part of another, more mainstream real estate awards program, there has been no dedicated recognition program for healthcare real estate. But the industry has matured to the point that we believe that it deserves its own awards program.

So, later this year, we will unveil the first annual HREI^™ Healthcare Real Estate Awards. We’re still finalizing the details, but we can tell you that this won’t be another design awards program. As always, HREI^™ will focus on the real estate development, financing and investment issues that are the primary interest of our readers. Award categories will probably include Development of the Year and Deal of the Year, along with the establishment of a Healthcare Real Estate Hall of Fame – recognizing the industry leaders who have made extraordinary, long-term contributions to the healthcare real estate business.

We will release more details about both the HREI^™ Resource Guide and HREI^™ Awards during the coming months. But we wanted to give our subscribers a sneak preview of two more initiatives that we hope will enable us to deliver more value to our readers while elevating the level of professionalism in our industry. We would also welcome your feedback on these ideas. Please feel free to call me direct at (952) 746-4405 or email me at publisher@hreinsights.com.

Murray W. Wolf, Publisher