Where to Be in Business

Lawyers are setting up shop near clients instead of the courthouse. Physicians want offices that are closer to their patients. Are they trading raw ambition for kinder, gentler personas?

Maybe not. The trend away from once coveted, more traditional locations reflects growth and savvy, as Southwest Florida businesses expand into residential communities and near the interstate. Some of the hottest spots are now farther from corridors historically viewed as commercial hubs.

"It's not as necessary for a law firm to be across the street from the courthouse as it used to be," says Gary Tasman, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield's Southwest Florida office. Among the reasons: Records can be accessed online.

Clients moving to affluent south Lee County communities, where many attorneys live, is another factor in the migration. Law firms are looking for spots from College Parkway and Summerlin Road southward, say commercial brokers.

"They are positioning themselves in a suburban office market, as opposed to the central business district," Tasman says.

Meanwhile, competition-minded physicians are going where the growth is, following rooftops-a strategy more typical of the retail sector. Projects for physicians are already in development around hospitals, such as on Metro Parkway near Gulf Coast Hospital, scheduled for completion in 2008, and on Del Prado Boulevard near Cape Coral Hospital. But brokers say new medical space will be popping up near neighborhoods as well.

"They really follow their patients' ZIP codes and [look for] easy access to the hospitals," says Frank D'Alessandro, partner in Gates, D'Alessandro & Woodyard LLC.