The delivery of healthcare in retail settings continues to accelerate beyond urgent care centers to include major medical practices, according to Joe Simone, President of Simone Development Companies Simone Development Companies.
Several years ago, Joe Simone, recognized this trend when he developed the Boyce Thompson Center, an innovative 85,000 square-foot mixed-use center in Yonkers, N.Y. with a consumer-driven retail model for healthcare. The Boyce Thompson Center successfully combined trendy dining destinations and other high-traffic retail with medical practices in a historic building that was adaptively reused.
Simone’s concept proved appealing to St. John’s Riverside Hospital and the Westmed Medical Group, which became the Boyce Thompson Center’s anchor tenants. The commitment from these two medical anchor tenants subsequently attracted ENT Allergy Associates, ColumbiaDoctors, Westchester Gastroenterology, Juvanni Med Spa, Metro Vein, among others.
The adaptive reuse of this historic 1920s botanical research center earned a Westchester Municipal Planning Federation’s 2017 urban planning award. The Boyce Thompson Center has become a prototype for future mixed-use healthcare developments.
“The medical move to a retail setting is driven by patients who want an enhanced physical space where there are opportunities to shop, dine, and have access to other personal services such as restaurants, banking and clothing shops,” said Joe Simone.
Across the country, there are similar models as owners of outdated and vacant commercial buildings repurpose them for healthcare tenants. Once again, Joe Simone is leading the way. In Harrison, NY, Simone is converting a vacant office building into a pediatric specialty care facility to be leased to Montefiore Health System.