Erwin Effler III
Vice president of development of health care at Ryan Cos. US Inc.
Looking to do more work in health care-related real estate, Ryan Cos. US Inc. has hired Erwin Effler III as vice president of development of health care.
Effler, 32, moved from his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, after spending four years as project manager at Health Care REIT, a $30 billion real estate investment trust. While there, Effler worked on several notable projects, including the NuHealth redevelopment, a $1 billion, 1-million-square-foot health care and senior housing project on Long Island in New York. Effler has master's degrees in both real estate development and health administration.
The health care real estate market is growing and changing as aging baby boomers reach retirement age and need more medical services. One current trend is to offer health care closer to where people live and work rather than clustering facilities in or around hospitals. Along those lines, Ryan is developing the $48 million outpatient care center in Maple Grove for Park Nicollet Health Services.
Q: How did the opportunity at Ryan arise?
A: A recruiter put us in contact. I talked with Collin Barr [president of Ryan's north-central region] and came up here, met the team and was very impressed with the people, the culture and the Twin Cities. I really saw an opportunity here with an entrepreneurial firm with a national presence that was well-capitalized. There are a lot of good things in the making, and I want to help cement them in the health care sector going forward.
Q: What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
A: On behalf of Ryan, I will work with health care systems to help facilitate their growth through strategic real estate planning, acquisitions, development and construction. That means everything from trying to understand where a hospital system is positioned today — and where they want to go in the future — to what that might mean for their real estate needs. Whether it's a medical office building, a free-standing emergency department, retail centers or urgent care.
Q: So that's proof of how health care real estate is changing?
A: Yes. I think it's an exciting time for health care real estate and for all of us as health care consumers. In the future, you will certainly see more easily accessible care and there will also be a lot more clarity into what type of facility is most appropriate to go to at any given time. You will see extended hours and urgent care centers and doctors that are closer to major retail outlets — where consumers traditionally are. That changes the paradigm of health care real estate, and there are a lot of challenges in making that all happen. Those are some of the challenges we're hoping to help solve.
Liz Wolf is an Eagan-based freelance writer. She can be reached at wolfliz99@aol.com.
