Canadian company NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT and WiredScore, which provides an international standard for internet connectivity in office buildings, announced the former as the first landlord in North America to pursue the certification across a portfolio of medical office building properties.
The portfolio of properties includes 31 buildings, totaling nearly 1.5 million square feet of medical office building space. Each of the 31 buildings have been awarded the level of Wired Certified or higher.
Additionally, NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT is the first owner to certify its properties in a number of Canadian cities.
The designations were assigned upon review of the buildings’ connectivity, technological infrastructure, and readiness to adopt to emerging technologies, NorthWest Healthcare Properties said.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT’s properties are full-service medical office buildings with a mix of medical office and clinical space. The company said that the buildings have undergone significant capital investments to the parking, plumbing, lighting, HVAC, and other infrastructure to enhance their suitability for healthcare use.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties said it is currently in the process of modernizing its medical office building portfolio, in recognition of the way technology is revolutionizing the medical industry as a whole.
“We pride ourselves as being the premier provider of real estate solutions for the medical community in Canada, in large part because we proactively adapt to the needs of our tenants. Increasingly, that involves an awareness of and a commitment to outfitting our assets with the most up-to-date infrastructure to facilitate the connectivity needs of the medical professionals in our buildings,” said Dave Casimiro, regional general manager of NorthWest’s Ontario and Atlantic regions.
“Technology, specifically digital connectivity, is now a key component in retaining tenants of all types, and ensuring their productivity needs are met,” said Arie Barendrecht, CEO and founder of WiredScore. “As the first landlord to pursue Wired Certification across a portfolio of medical office building properties in North America, the team at NorthWest Healthcare Properties is positioned as early adopters, raising the standard in healthcare real estate by proactively offering what matters most to tenants.”
In pursuing WiredScore’s certification, the properties underwent a comprehensive certification process that evaluated the aspects of digital infrastructure that enable a seamless connectivity experience in which office tenants are able to stay online and maintain productivity levels.
Upon review of the project’s technical elements including: internet service providers available to tenants, infrastructure redundancy, connection access points, and readiness to meet future tenant needs, a Wired Certification level is assigned based on the official standards developed by WiredScore and its connectivity advisory board with representatives from Google Fiber, Rudin Management, Arup, WSP / Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Zayo Group.
NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT provides investors with access to a portfolio of healthcare real estate comprised of interests in a diversified portfolio of 158 income-producing properties and 11.9 million square feet of gross leasable area located throughout major markets in Canada, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.
In Canada, the company is the largest non-government owner and manager of medical office buildings and healthcare facilities in cities including as Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto. Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax.