Medical facilities bring new life to struggling malls

Malls aren’t just hubs where consumers can check off holiday shopping lists. They’re 
also destinations for patients seeking convenient healthcare.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Medical University of South Carolina Health have expanded operations outside traditional care settings and into nearby malls. Rather than constructing new facilities from the ground up, repurposing vacant space at shopping malls can be quicker and cheaper for providers and often makes care more accessible for patients.

Janice Smith, a registered nurse and vice president of adult ambulatory operations at VUMC, describes herself as a “risk-taker.” When health system leaders asked if she’d help convert the second floor of a local mall into clinics, she welcomed the challenge.

Nashville, Tennessee-based VUMC transformed 450,000 square feet of empty mall space in the city, formerly home to Reebok, JCPenney and a menswear store, into a women’s clinic, dermatology clinic and comprehensive spine clinic—to name a few of the specialty sites under the mall’s roof—starting in 2009.

VUMC signed a letter of intent in March to negotiate a lease agreement for 600,000 square feet in another mall just outside of Nashville and is working through terms of the lease.

“I think that speaks to the success we experienced with our first foray,” Smith said.

Embarking on the mall-to-medicine transition makes sense considering the ample parking, multiple points of entry, and easy access from interstates, leaders said.

“There were a lot of big wins for us, and it checked a lot of boxes from a care delivery standpoint,” said Tom Crawford, chief operating officer at Charleston-based MUSC Health.

As part of its goal to be the top healthcare provider in the state, MUSC Health needed to make its care more accessible, he said. Leaders originally planned to break ground on a piece of land before they opted to open new clinics inside a mall's former JCPenney in 2019, he said.

“It offered the bones that could be easily flipped into a healthcare facility,” Crawford said.

The facility, known as the West Ashley Medical Pavilion, houses MUSC Health’s ambulatory surgery center, diagnostic imaging center and infusion center. The health system also worked out a deal with the mall’s ownership group, giving it first right of refusal to adjacent stores if it looks to grow further.

Proximity to a shopping mall also serves visitors and family members. When a patient goes into outpatient surgery at MUSC Health, they’re required to bring someone who can’t leave the facility until the patient is released.

“Because that facility is hooked into the mall, it’s considered the same property. Instead of having a waiting room full of people, they can go to Target,” said Ginger Davis of real estate services company Trademark Properties, who oversees leasing and development planning for Charleston’s Citadel Mall.

With one move under her belt, Smith feels like the system has a head start if they reach an agreement with the local government to expand in a similar way again.

The medical facilities have also proved beneficial to their surrounding communities by generating foot traffic where it was once lacking.

“There’s been this resurgence in that area, and it’s wonderful that any organization can offer that back to the city,” Smith said.

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