A medical real estate broker helps physicians and healthcare practices find, evaluate, and negotiate clinical space — new leases, renewals, purchases, and dispositions. In Michigan, the difference between a generalist and a healthcare-focused advisor shows up in details a general commercial real estate search can easily miss: clinical plumbing, exam-room counts, buildout allowances, and the lease clauses that can materially affect a future practice sale or lease assignment. This page explains the market the way we see it from inside real transactions — observed rents, submarket reality, and the decisions that matter — not as a national template.
How we work: Skylark Commercial Realty is a healthcare-focused commercial real estate advisory serving physicians, dentists, veterinarians, physical therapists, and eyecare professionals across Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan. On tenant and buyer engagements, Skylark represents the healthcare practice's interests in that engagement — site selection, market comparison, and negotiation. Through Skylark Healthcare Realty, we also represent owners, landlords, and sellers of healthcare real estate: valuations, positioning, leasing, and sales. Experience representing healthcare occupiers and property owners across separate engagements helps us understand what the other side values — and in every engagement, the client's interests come first.
The work sits between two disciplines most brokers practice separately. It requires commercial real estate fluency — market data, lease structure, financial comparison — and clinical-space fluency: what a primary-care suite needs versus a procedure suite, why plumbing chases and mechanical capacity decide conversion cost, and how a practice's patient base, referral patterns, staffing, and equipment needs shape space decisions. A medical real estate broker's job is to run the search, the analysis, and the negotiation so practice leadership can stay focused on care. It is real estate work, not practice brokerage: we do not sell medical practices, and we coordinate with attorneys, lenders, CPAs, architects, and other specialists on the parts of the process that belong in their hands.
Michigan's healthcare real estate is shaped by major health systems in Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit. You don't need a systems overview; you need to know what those healthcare clusters do to your site search. Three practical implications for an independent practice:
Major health systems anchor where clinical infrastructure exists, but an independent practice's location logic is its own: where the patient base sits, where referral patterns actually run, where clinical staff can commute, and what the equipment requires. Write those criteria down first — the right geography usually looks different from the obvious one.
Purpose-built clinical space exists where systems and private landlords have built it. Some corridors hold second-generation medical suites with the plumbing and parking already solved; other areas offer only conversions. The inventory a practice finds first is rarely the inventory that fits best — a broader search, including off-market and owner-direct conversations, changes the option set.
Clinical suites are often built or heavily adapted, not simply found move-in ready. We generally recommend beginning 12–18 months before a target opening or lease expiration so there is time to search broadly, negotiate, complete due diligence, and build or renovate the space. Starting early also leaves room to verify the unglamorous items: zoning, permitted use for the specialty, parking, and mechanical capacity, all of which vary by municipality and decide whether the space you like can become the practice you want.
Rather than quote a market average, here is what medical space was asking in a mid-2026 snapshot of Skylark listings — real buildings, real structures:
| Submarket | Observed asking rate | Lease structure | The space |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warren (Macomb Co.) | $13.50/SF/YR | Full service | Up to 8,000 SF in a 14,480 SF single-story medical building |
| Waterford (Oakland Co.) | $15.00/SF/YR | NNN | 3,000 SF in a two-story medical clinic, physician co-tenancy |
| Saline (Washtenaw Co.) | $16.00/SF/YR | NNN | 1,200–3,600 SF suites, 2020-built medical professional building |
| Brighton (Livingston Co.) | $23.00/SF/YR | Full service | 2,400 SF suite in a professional commons |
For context, a mid-2026 survey of listed Ann Arbor medical space showed asking rents around $20/SF, with lease structures varying by property.
Read these as observed examples, not market averages — and read the lease structure before the number. A full-service rate generally includes operating expenses in the base rent: taxes, insurance, and common-area maintenance. An NNN rate quotes base rent alone and adds those items on top. The number that matters is the estimated all-in occupancy cost — base rent plus whatever the structure pushes to the tenant. Two quotes with different structures can only be compared after normalizing to all-in terms, and every figure should be re-verified at tour time; asking rents in thin medical markets move quietly.
These are the evaluation points that decide whether a listing is a clinic or a disappointment:
Ownership — a building purchase or a medical condominium — can build equity and gives a practice greater long-term control of its clinical environment. Owner-occupied financing, whether conventional or SBA-backed, may be available for qualifying medical users, subject to lender underwriting; confirm current terms with your lender. Medical condominiums offer a middle path: ownership of a suite inside a medical-designated building, without full-building responsibilities. A current example: Suite C at Centerpoint Medical Center on Pontiac Trail in South Lyon — ±3,362 SF of new-construction medical condominium available for sale or lease.
Buying is not automatically right. It concentrates capital and reduces flexibility — for practices still shaping their footprint, expecting to change locations, or whose capital is better deployed into equipment and staffing, leasing may be the better fit, especially when a renewal can be negotiated early, from strength, with current market data. The honest answer is that lease-versus-buy is a comparison, not a rule: run it with real numbers — all-in occupancy cost on one side, ownership cost and risk on the other — before any tour is scheduled.
Every engagement is defined by whose interests we represent in it. On tenant and buyer assignments, Skylark represents the healthcare practice — search, tours, market comparison, letter of intent, and negotiation through signing. For owners, landlords, and sellers of healthcare real estate, Skylark Healthcare Realty provides broker opinions of value, positioning, leasing, and sale representation. Experience representing healthcare occupiers and property owners across separate engagements helps us understand what the other side values — and in every engagement, the client's interests come first.
Healthcare real estate decisions rarely come down to square footage and rent alone. These three physician assignments show how location, ownership, parking, financing, patient continuity, and even a physician's day-to-day life can change what the right property looks like.
Dr. Carter-Snell wanted to add a second Carter Snell Skin Center location closer to home while maintaining her Detroit office. The challenge was familiar: good medical properties available for purchase are scarce throughout Metro Detroit, and parking can eliminate an otherwise workable building quickly.
We found a former bank near 11 Mile and Woodward with the fundamentals that mattered — excellent visibility at a heavily traveled intersection, convenient access, sufficient parking, and a much shorter commute from home. The property wasn't built as a dermatology office, but it gave the practice the location and exposure that purpose-built medical inventory could not.
Sometimes the best medical real estate opportunity isn't medical real estate yet.
Dr. Cassleman wanted to own his practice real estate, but he also had a very specific geographic goal: he wanted to be close to his wife's practice. Purchase opportunities with enough parking for a medical use were limited.
We found a building directly across the street from her practice with abundant parking and existing tenants already producing income. Dr. Cassleman renovated approximately half of the building for his concierge practice while keeping tenants in the balance.
The result was more than an owner-user purchase. He gained control of his practice real estate, retained an income-producing portion of the property, and ended up in a location that works unusually well for both his practice and his family.
Dr. Elswick was acquiring a plastic surgery practice and dealing with its real estate at the same time. The existing lease was a meaningful factor in the economics of the acquisition, the transaction needed to move quickly, and financing the practice acquisition alongside a real estate purchase made the underwriting more complicated.
We helped her evaluate ownership rather than simply inheriting the existing lease, connected her with a lender suited to the transaction, and found a Troy property very close to the existing practice with abundant parking and easy patient access.
That proximity mattered. It allowed the practice to remain familiar and convenient to its established patient base while giving Dr. Elswick greater long-term control over the real estate.
When a physician buys a practice, the building decision belongs in the same conversation — not as an afterthought.
Whether you're opening, renewing, relocating, expanding, or buying, the decision starts with understanding the market — and the market starts with someone who represents your side of it. Start a conversation →
A medical real estate broker represents healthcare practices in real estate transactions — site selection, market comparison, lease and purchase negotiation, and renewals — with experience in clinical-space issues that a general office search may not address, from plumbing and mechanical capacity to buildout and accessibility. It is distinct from practice brokerage: the broker handles the space, not the practice sale itself.
It varies significantly by submarket and lease structure. A mid-2026 snapshot of Skylark listings ranged from $13.50/SF full-service in Warren to $23/SF full-service in Brighton, with NNN rates of $15–16/SF in Waterford and Saline and asking rents near $20/SF in Ann Arbor. Full-service rates generally include operating expenses; NNN rates add them to base rent — so compare estimated all-in occupancy costs, not headline rates, and re-verify at tour time.
It depends on capital, timeline, and how much location control the practice wants. Ownership — a building or a medical condominium — can build equity and provide greater control; leasing preserves flexibility for practices still shaping their footprint. Owner-occupied financing may be available for qualifying buyers, subject to lender review. Run the comparison with real numbers early, before you become attached to a property.
In many commercial leases, commissions are paid from the landlord side of the transaction, although arrangements vary. Purchase commissions and other fee structures also vary by transaction. Before signing a representation agreement, ask exactly how your advisor will be compensated and by whom.