In referencing AP article about the general strength of the health care industry during an economic downturn, Russ dropped an interesting little tidbit about the Decatur economy over on the Decatur Tax Blog…

Although I don’t know what commercial property owner’s vacancy rates are in Decatur, I estimate that at least 11 percent of office-based businesses in Decatur are tied in some way to the health care industry. (Our biggest sub-groups are mental health providers, physicians, and dentists.) That percentage is based off of the number of businesses that have a medical-related NAICS code.

From a business licensing standpoint, it does seem like turnover in retail businesses such as restaurants and shops is more common than healthcare businesses in Decatur, but there are no reports I can easily run in our business licensing system that would back up that observation.

There definitely has been a noticable influx of doctors and health care facilities in the past 2 years, with Kaiser’s spot along West Ponce the most obvious addition.