A Group Ready to Plant a Flag
Dr. Marsh had been practicing plastic surgery for nearly a decade as an associate within Specialty Practice Group (SPG), a multi-location group with an active expansion strategy across the region. He and Reed knew each other personally, and when SPG began looking to enter the New York market, Dr. Marsh called him at Practice Real Estate Group (PRG).
Dr. Marsh had been subletting space one day a week from an established local practice in the area. It kept SPG in the market, but the group had outgrown the arrangement and needed a location of their own. A buildout wasn’t something they were willing to take on – the timeline alone would have set them back a year.
Working Through the Layers
SPG’s decision-making ran through multiple people – the surgeon, his partner, a facilities director, a management layer above that. Reed’s work early on was understanding who had actual authority and staying close to the right people as things developed. As the search progressed, Dr. Marsh stepped back and his partner took over as the primary contact.
The requirement was simple – find something SPG could walk into.
The First Space
Reed found a space that fit. It was already in good condition – the improvements SPG requested were minor, just cabinetry and some finish work, nothing that would take significant time or money. For three and a half months, he worked through those details with the landlord, keeping the deal moving alongside a group with a lot of competing priorities.
On a Friday afternoon, the landlord’s broker called. There was another offer on the table – no counter, no request for best and final terms, just notice that the landlord was moving forward with the other tenant, who needed nothing done to the space. By Monday, the deal was gone.
A Better Space
Reed had already run another search in anticipation, and he had something else lined up before he told SPG they’d lost the space.
“We can’t sit on this,” he told them.
What Reed found was a 2,500 square foot suite inside a 30,000 square foot building – and it was a better fit. A prior tenant had left it in near-mint condition – SPG could see patients within three days of lease signing. All it needed was updated placards on the exam rooms, some touch-up work, and new signage.
The prior tenant had negotiated exterior signage rights that a tenant of this size wouldn’t normally qualify for, and those terms carried over. For a plastic surgery practice in a high-income New York market, that kind of visibility has real value. Reed pressed SPG to move and worked through the facilities director to get the right person acting on it.
The lease came together in roughly three weeks. A cost surfaced at the counter-signing stage that the landlord’s broker had missed. Reed went back to the landlord and got signage installation covered instead – worth more to SPG over five years than the original discrepancy.
Where Things Landed
Start to finish, the deal came together in about six weeks. SPG was seeing patients in the new space shortly after signing, giving the group a foothold in a market where patients had previously been driving out of the area for care. The lease includes two five-year renewal options, positioning SPG for the long term as they continue eyeing additional markets for expansion.
Note: Details have been anonymized to protect client confidentiality.