The three decisions that make or break a clinic project
There are three calls that carry more risk than anything that follows them: which site you choose, what you budget, and how you plan the space. Get any one wrong and the rest of the project is spent compensating for it.
Site selection
Site selection looks straightforward until you're standing in a tenancy trying to work out whether the ceiling height will clear the services you need, whether the floor plate can actually fit the room count your model requires, or whether access, parking and compliance constraints quietly rule the space out. A site can look right and still fight you at every turn once fitout starts, and by then, you've usually already signed.
Early budgeting
Early budgeting is where a lot of business cases fall apart, not because the clinic idea was bad, but because the cost assumptions going into the lease negotiation and the finance conversation weren't grounded in anything real. Realistic, build-informed numbers from day one change what you can commit to and what you can negotiate. A guess doesn't.
Space planning
Space planning is the test most people skip until it's too late. Does the layout actually support the patient journey and clinical workflow you're planning around, on the real floor plate you're looking at, not a generic template? A test-fit answers that question before you sign, not after.
What a proper feasibility assessment actually covers
- •A compliance and accreditation check: assessing the space against the accreditation standards relevant to your discipline, including infection prevention and control and DDA accessibility compliance, so you're not discovering a compliance gap after the lease is signed.
- •Concept test-fits and room schedules: a sketch of how your rooms, flow and clinical spaces sit on the actual floorplate, not an assumption.
- •Programme and staging advice: practical sequencing on how the build will unfold, including how to keep operating through a renovation if that's the reality you're working with.
- •A landlord, make-good and base-build review: checking lease conditions and the existing base-build so nothing expensive is hiding in the fine print.
- •A go / no-go recommendation: a clear, direct verdict with next steps, so the decision to proceed (or walk away) is based on evidence, not optimism.
Why this pays for itself
The value of feasibility isn't the report itself, it's what it prevents. A short conversation before you commit to a site can save months of delay and tens of thousands of dollars in rework, redesign, or a lease you shouldn't have signed. Compared to the cost of unwinding a bad site decision mid-fitout, a feasibility assessment is one of the cheapest insurance policies available to a practice. If you're evaluating a site for a general practice, specialist clinic, allied health service or aged care facility, the right time to get expert eyes on it is before you sign, not after.
