Not long ago, dentists were more or less welcome as a teeth in shopping centers.
The owners preferred more conventional retailers in their shopping centers, relegating dentists to distant places if they rented them at all.
Now, they are eminent tenants in many shopping centers as part of a growing trend in medical companies or “medal” joining shops and restaurants in neighborhood shopping centers.
The privileged places in shopping centers “were reserved for the” best “tenants that dentists said Chris Aguon, vice-president of real estate at PDS Health, who operates more than 300 dental offices in California, including modern dentistry of Alhambra in Alhambra Place.
The dentist shares the high -end shopping center Alhambra with Sephora and Farmers Market Spruts, serving patients who could have to go to a medical office building over the past years to clean their teeth.
This is a sign of the way in which shopping centers have changed, because pandemic restrictions have caused the closure of many small businesses and led retail owners to adopt a wide range of medical tenants, including dentists, fill the empty space and cause potential customers to other stores in their shopping centers.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
With dentists in demand, they can be more demanding on where they have set up a practice. PDS Health likes local shopping centers that people who live nearby often visit, preferably with a large area draw, such as Target, Costco or Walmart.
“We also like neighborhood grocery stores,” said Aguon, because people often buy food and many buyers are women.
“We have found that women in households tend to make most health care decisions for the home,” he said. “If they notice that the dentist is ideally located in this same center, they will tend to try us.”
PDS Health, based in Nevada, recruits young dentists from dental schools and installs them in stores across the country. Patients are often meetings with an immediate problem such as teeth or neighbors who want a dentist closer to their home, he said.
Inside the Alhambra modern dentistry office at the Alhambra Place.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The offices are intended to be more attractive than the “Mom-And-Pop” store dentists of the past, said the director general of PDS Health, Stephen Thorne, with waiting rooms and light light colors. “It doesn't look like a clinic.”
Dentistory is only an example of what in the real estate sector is known as “Medal”, a portman of “medical” and “retail”.
The category has increased from compulsory closings and the evolution of shopping habits caused by COVVI-19 shopping owners to change their mixture of tenants, said Barrie Scardina, president of retail services in the Americas for Cushman & Wakefield real estate brokerage.
At the start of the pandemic, when all non -essential companies were ordered closed, health related stores remained open and paid the rent. Their owners have learned that medal companies were resistant to pandemic and inflation, said Scardina.
Urgent care establishments were an early use of Medal, followed by veterinarians and then dentists, said Scardina. Now, the wellness category is developing in several directions.
Boutique gymnasiums and chain fitness centers are common in shopping centers. Nearby can be a range of well-being companies such as Wheelbarrow When customers get stretching help to relieve muscle and joint pain, improve the posture and reduce stress.
There are infrared saunas heated in light, showers with infused vitamin-c water and cold dives Sweetthouz. Other well-being companies include acupuncture, yoga, light therapy to reduce pain and inflammation, and IV drops for hydration that include vitamins and minerals also known to mitigate the mouth of wood.
“We also see a lot of skin care,” she said.
Another class of well-being suppliers perhaps coming to shopping centers revolves around semaglutide drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro who can help people drop books.
“I think there is a whole new category that has started in the past two years, and all of this concerns weight loss,” said Colin Shaughnessy, executive vice-president of leasing in the United States for the owner of the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield shopping center. “The economic impact of something like Ozempic will be felt for the next decade.”
Shopping centers can one day include weight loss clinics with specialized doctors and perhaps life coaches to help people maintain their achievements, he said.
“When they are on these drugs, many people lose a lot of weight and then put it back” in part because they have not created new habits for a healthier lifestyle and need advice, said Shaughnessy. “I think this is the next wave of the place where health care is in retail.”
People who have experienced weight loss become more likely to join people in shape who frequent wellness companies, he said, and shopping centers will be there for them. He envisages people, for example, to visit a gymnasium, followed by a cold dive or massage Then finish with a healthy meal from a distance from walking.
Good health is his own reward, but for some people with the means, “well-being is a kind of entertainment,” said Shaughnessy.
In the Westfield Century shopping center of his business, there is a UCLA medical clinic with immediate care, family medicine and other specialties.
Concierge Provide Next Health offers a wide range of services, including NAD therapy intended to increase energy and mental clarity, ozone therapy to reduce inflammation and stimulate immunity, and aesthetic services such as botox, micro-rhythm and hormone therapy replaced by hormones to increase testosterone or estrogen levels.
People often visit well-being tenants, including gymnasiums three to five times a week, he said, which can also lead them to frequent other commercial companies. The addition of well-being tenants also helps more traditional shopping center merchants by not making competitors in typical commercial companies such as clothing stores, shoe stores or cosmetics.
Young people, with a birthday party, play a course at Holey Moley, a very miniature golf course where each hole is intended to be instagramable on the third promenade on the street in Santa Monica.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Medtail joins another category of tenants intended to attract visitors known as experiential retail trade, which has also increased in popularity from the pandemic while people wishing to have fun with friends have looked for group activities.
Shared events such as pickleball, mini-golf, bowling and launching the ax are offered in spaces that once held conventional stores.
According to hot cookies, sodas and elaborate cupcakes a report By the owner of the Phillips Edison & Co. neighborhood shopping center.
“Ironically, the increase in health and well-being products and wellness products coincides with the increase in candies and specialized treats,” said the report, the openings of the dessert workshop increasing by 50% during a recent period of one year while consumers were looking for affordable indulgences.
Even before the pandemic, the shopping center operators had trouble keeping their properties occupied as purchasing habits have changed, said Scardina, so “it was great to call on new concepts in these places”.
