More and more healthcare services are moving out from traditional hospital centers and into outpatient facilities, requiring medical professionals to think creatively about where their real estate options might lie, says Matt Coursen, the U.S. healthcare lead for real estate services giant JLL.
Coursen oversees a team of 250 leasing specialists representing hospitals, medical systems and property owners. He's worked with major healthcare companies and systems such as AstraZeneca, Children’s National Hospital and RWJBarnabas Health, the largest integrated healthcare system in New Jersey.
Many big hospital systems in urban systems are seeking space for outpatient services known as ambulatory care, but they're often limited by locations with little developable land.
"When land is scarce, health systems should think vertically and creatively — whether that's redeveloping existing assets, converting underutilized retail or office space, or building multi-story ambulatory care facilities that consolidate services," he told CoStar News.
Healthcare systems across the U.S. are moving to expand in facilities where patients get their services without being admitted for overnight stays, driving a new round of real estate activity.
"Health systems led construction deliveries in 2025, representing 57% of total square footage, with cancer care facilities seeing particularly robust expansion," JLL said in a March report. "Over 1.1 million square feet of hospital-owned cancer treatment centers were delivered in 2025."
Coursen joined JLL in 2005, and last year he was promoted to his current healthcare group leadership position. A graduate of Washington & Lee University in Virginia, he interned with the NFL team now known as the Commanders and started his career in sports marketing at USA Football, the national governing body that promotes and develops tackle and flag football for all age groups, before moving to the commercial property industry.
"I wasn’t maximizing my skillset around sales and so I pivoted to real estate brokerage to leverage my abilities," he said. "It wasn’t until seven years after that I won my first healthcare client and my journey to a comprehensive specialization in healthcare real estate began."
The following interview has been edited for length.
In addition to going vertical, how can hospital systems grow when land is constrained?
We're also seeing more systems partner with developers to unlock value from their existing real estate portfolios and fund expansion without requiring new ground to be acquired. The key is shifting the mindset from traditional campus thinking to a distributed care delivery model that meets patients where they are with the help of partnerships in the community that enable more creative solutions.
How can technology best be used for site selection?
The most sophisticated health systems today are harnessing data from many important sources to optimize their current ambulatory portfolio and plan for the future as well. By layering demographic data, payor mix, competitive analysis and patient origin studies in one visualization platform, health system executives are enabled to make site selection decisions with far greater precision than ever before. Robust mapping platforms such as our own JLL OneMapIQ, allow us to model catchment areas, assess market share growth opportunities and identify underserved pockets of a market before a single property is even considered. Technology doesn't replace market expertise, but it dramatically sharpens it and reduces the risk of a costly misplaced location.
What is the future of healthcare real estate?
Paradoxically, while the future of healthcare is most likely larger health systems consolidating as opportunities arise, the future for healthcare real estate is decidedly decentralized. Health systems will continue moving care out of the hospital, off-campus and closer to where patients live, work and shop, driving sustained demand for well-located outpatient facilities. We'll also likely see greater integration between real estate strategy and clinical strategy, as operators realize that the wrong location directly impacts patient volume and revenue. Flexibility will be paramount, as spaces need to adapt quickly to shifting service lines, technology and care delivery models.
What is the most in-demand healthcare space and why?
Outpatient medical office and ambulatory surgery centers are leading demand right now, driven by the ongoing migration of procedures away from high-cost hospital settings toward more convenient and cost-effective outpatient environments. Patients and payers alike are pushing for this shift — procedures that once required an inpatient stay are now routinely performed in freestanding [outpatient surgery centers] at a fraction of the cost. Well-located, modern outpatient space in high-traffic corridors continues to be the most competitive and sought-after product in the healthcare real estate market.