Revitalizing dead space: Finding an innovative place for your practice

Vanderbilt University has an ambitious plan to revive an old mall by mixing medical and retail. But with shopping center vacancy rates growing, even the smallest practice might be able to do the same by moving into a commercial location.

By Karen Caffarini, AMNews staff. June 16, 2008.

When Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., went shopping for a new home for some of its high-traffic clinics, it found it had to look no further than a local mall.

Vanderbilt and the owner of 100 Oaks Mall are working together to transform a half-empty shell of what was once a vibrant shopping destination into a modern, state-of-the-art medical mall -- at half the cost of building a new complex. When completed, 16 medical clinics and support services will be housed on the second and third floors of the three-story building, and in an adjoining office tower. Restaurants and existing retail would remain on the first floor.

By making this move, Vanderbilt solves a space crunch at its main campus, which is landlocked and growing at a rate of 6% to 9% a year; provides larger, modern facilities for its clinics and easy access for patients; breathes new life into a deteriorating mall; and offers another alternative for physicians looking for new places to set up offices.

The project, called Vanderbilt Health at One Hundred Oaks, is still in the construction phase -- only the pediatric rehabilitation clinic has opened so far. But the concept is being watched, as experts in various fields imagine the possibilities any success could bring to other vacant retail spaces -- and to physicians who might be interested in filling them.

Millions of square footage in dying malls across the country could be revived. Boarded-up retail shops and grocery stores could become thriving tax-paying entities. But more important to many landlords is the fact that the glut of new retail space on the market could be filled by traffic-generating physician practices.