Small Office Demand Showed Up in Q4, and Dentistry Was the Surprise

By Broker, Bill Mears, CCIM, SIOR

If you’ve heard “office is soft” a few too many times, Q4 2025 in the Janesville/Beloit market offered a useful reminder: small office demand is still very real—when the product fits the user.

We saw five office buildings sell in Q4, mostly in the 2,000–4,000 SF range. That alone is notable in a tertiary market. The bigger surprise was who bought them: four out of five were purchased specifically for dentist offices.

That buyer mix matters because dental (and many medical) users aren’t shopping for a generic office. Their buildouts are expensive and highly specific—plumbing, power, imaging, sterilization, patient flow, parking, signage. When you’re investing that kind of money into a space, ownership can make more sense than leasing, especially for a practice planning to be in the market long-term. Control becomes part of the business plan.

One sale came full circle and really underscored the point: a building that was originally built as a dental office, later remodeled into retail, and then effectively pulled back toward dental/medical use again. That’s a market signal that functional small office—good access, visibility, parking—still moves when it checks the right boxes.

This wasn’t only about buying existing buildings, either. We also sold a 1-acre parcel for a ground-up dental office, which tells you users will build when they can’t find the right fit at the right terms.

For owners, this is a reminder that the buyer pool for small office can be deeper than it looks—especially for properties that suit owner-users. For tenants, it may be time to run a simple buy vs. lease comparison over a 7–10 year horizon if you’re funding significant improvements. And for investors, “office” is uneven, but the right small-office product in the right location can still be very liquid. 

If you’d like to dive into the details behind these Q4 dental-driven sales—buyer motivations, pricing dynamics, and what it means for small-office demand in a tertiary market—please contact me. Also, we’ve got a timely real-world example: we just brought 2100 W Court St in Janesville to market—2,161 SF, originally built as a dental clinic and currently an income-producing Edward Jones office (leased through mid-2027). If you’d like the brochure or want to talk through fit and positioning, I’m happy to share.