Spotlight on: Joe Krumdieck, Florida Market Leader & Executive Vice President, Realty Trust Group
March 2025 — In an interview with Invest:, Joe Krumdieck, Florida market leader and executive vice president of Realty Trust Group, shared how the company is leveraging AI to optimize its operations, why Tampa Bay’s rapid growth positions it as an ideal market to be in, and noted how the future of healthcare real estate will focus on decentralized models.
What makes the Tampa Bay region an ideal location for Realty Trust Group?
Realty Trust Group is a full-service real estate firm that focuses exclusively on the healthcare industry. Our services include Advisory, Development, Transactions, Operations and Compliance and we aim to align strategy and real estate to support health system and physician group growth.
The Tampa Bay region is ideal due to the significant population growth in Florida and the increasing need for healthcare services. We fill a gap by analyzing demographics, trends, and healthcare strategies to determine the appropriate service mixes required in different areas, and we have the resources to execute on the real estate actions required.
How does the region compare to other markets Realty Trust Group operates in?
The Florida market, including Tampa Bay, is highly competitive due to its population growth and regulatory environment. Health systems in this region must act quickly, balancing both offensive and defensive strategies in a competitive environment. This differs from other markets where population growth may be slower or regulatory restrictions like Certificate of Need requirements limit competition. This makes Florida an ideal environment for us, as we thrive in such dynamic and competitive markets.
Over the past year, how has Realty Trust Group expanded or evolved in the Tampa Bay market, and what were some key milestones and achievements?
In late 2024 we relocated our office to 100 North, in the heart of downtown Tampa. We are co-located with our affiliated firm PYA, a full-service Healthcare CPA and professional services firm. A lot of the work we do is advisory-based, which is the core of our company. We are an advisory-first firm that objectively consults to ensure that our clients’ needs are being met before our own. Over the last five to 10 years, we have worked with many of the Tampa health systems in various capacities, ranging from valuations, mergers and acquisitions support, development support, compliance reviews, and real estate optimization.
Which types of projects are seeing the highest growth and how does that growth fit in with Realty Trust Group’s offering?
There is a lot of emphasis right now on determining the appropriate capital strategies for growth. With so much market activity in the state of Florida, many health systems have competing capital requirements. We can facilitate the appropriate strategy for capital deployment or utilization of other people’s capital. For instance, when health systems are looking to grow and build a location, we help perform financial analytics that help the system understand what their return on capital could look like. If they are seeking outside capital, we can help conduct developer selection or capital partner selection for those systems to mitigate risk and reduce costs when working with developers.
Can you share specific examples of how AI and other technological advancements are being used to streamline your operations?
We use different technologies for the evaluations of site selection and market studies. One of the things that we have been able to really help support systems with is the visualization of data regarding their property portfolios. We can help systems understand where their assets are, the usage of those assets, and identify areas for expansion or consolidation of services. Oftentimes, health systems, through mergers and acquisitions, end up with a variety of real estate in different locations. We look at that and try to line up lease dates, and create development or new leasing strategies that help eliminate duplication of workforce and ultimately help save money to the bottom line.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for Realty Trust Group’s continued growth in the next few years?
I think that the saturation of the Florida market provides a great opportunity for systems to really review their real estate footprint, and support the optimization of those real estate assets. That is a skill set we can bring to complement the health systems’ current teams, whether that be with the finance department, the real estate, facilities, or operations.
Are you seeing any shifts in medical office construction trends that are affecting the types of projects Realty Trust Group is taking on?
The cost of projects are constantly scrutinized as interest rates and construction pricing are high. Being savvy with design and efficiency in design are important. There are also some construction methods that we deploy that help reduce the timeline of construction, which can be beneficial from a total project-cost perspective.
What are some of the biggest challenges within healthcare real estate that your clients face when considering market expansions, facility developments, and rising costs?
The number of challenges that health systems face today is significant, and real estate is typically not at the top of that list. For us, we need to be able to compel health systems to understand that there are opportunities and cost savings, but also just the facilitation of strategy execution that can advance organizations faster. It is the competing interests and priorities that health systems are faced with that are our biggest challenge, which is getting to the top of the priority list.
Are there any upcoming regulatory changes, whether federal or local, that you anticipate will significantly impact Realty Trust Group’s operations?
There is the possibility that tariffs could have an impact on construction costs. Also, from a workforce perspective, any interruption of service providers could be extremely problematic for health systems that rely on a variety of different service personnel.
What are your top priorities for the next two to three years, and what does the future of healthcare real estate look like?
We are going to continue to grow in the state of Florida. With that, we need to make sure we have the appropriate resources that can service our clients across various regions. We have a partner, a company called PYA, that is also a healthcare adviser and service company. They are an accounting firm that we share space with in Tampa. It is about continuing to work as a team to jointly tackle the challenges that health systems in Tampa and the Florida region have.
As for the future of healthcare real estate, I believe that hospitals are going to continue to care for people outside of the hospital. By doing that, you are reducing the cost of care and the toll that care takes on families. A decentralized model is going to continue to require new and innovative real estate space strategies.
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