Medical moves

Commercial real estate broker Ken Hughes doesn't claim clairvoyance, but he sure was onto something when he quit his job last summer.

With 15 years in the business, Hughes, who had most recently worked for a health care-focused real estate investment trust, founded CNK Realty. It's one of the few, if not the only, commercial real estate firms in the Sarasota-Bradenton market to focus solely on health care and medical space.

That market is now one of the hottest things going in commercial real estate, both on the Gulf Coast and nationwide. One obvious reason is the federal health care overhaul: Despite the controversy over the reach of the bill, more people with health insurance creates a need for more medical services. That, in turn, facilitates a need for more space.