Americans are getting older and fatter, and our health increasingly depends on the massive amounts of information stored in our medical records – which means medical records companies themselves, companies like Watertown-based athenahealth, are on the hunt for expansion space.

athenahealth is expanding its medical record-keeping and cloud computing services, an initiative that has the company seriously considering building itself a new headquarters in Brighton, sources told Banker & Tradesman.

But the company isn’t interested in just any old empty parcel in the worn, industrial section along North Beacon Street in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood. The fast-growing medical records company is considering moving its headquarters to a major redevelopment project spearheaded by executives from local shoe manufacturer New Balance.

athenahealth currently occupies roughly 132,000 square feet in Harvard University’s Arsenal on the Charles facility. According to multiple sources, athenahealth executives have been out to Brighton to meet with New Balance higher-ups and to tour potential build-to-suit sites. All told, athenahealth’s total space needs are somewhere in the vicinity of 250,000 to 300,000 square feet, sources said.

Officials from both athenahealth and New Balance did not return calls seeking comment for this story by press time.

A Perfect Fit?

The company’s lease at the Arsenal expires in 2015, so representatives are out kicking tires at a couple locations – but none with as much interest as the New Balance properties.

New Brighton Landing, a subsidiary of the shoe company, along with other sub-entities of the sporty outfitter, have compiled approximately 26 acres between its own company headquarters and parcels it has been strategically purchasing in the neighborhood.

The acquisitions have come about a year after New Balance revealed its desire to build a $250 million, mixed-use development atop 15 acres that was to include office space, a sports complex, a hotel and other uses. New Balance has also indicated its desires to build itself a new headquarters property in the area.

But according to commercial real estate sources aware of athenahealth’s plans, the healthcare records provider is pushing hard for a possible build-to-suit on some portion of New Balance’s land.

“They have a lease coming due in 2015, and they need at least a couple hundred thousand feet, but with their rapid rate of expansion, they need more like 250,000 or 300,000 square feet,” said one real estate executive. “They probably don’t have an opportunity to expand at the Arsenal, and that’s something they really need to do. And it makes much more sense for them to keep their people under one roof. Brighton Landing just makes the most sense.”

Other Options

Sources said the company has also looked at Biogen Idec’s 360,000-square-foot headquarters in Weston, which will be vacated when the biotechnology firm moves back to Cambridge.

But in the end, sources said athenahealth would probably prefer the Brighton Landing site.

“It just makes sense for such a rapidly growing company to want to be part of the redevelopment efforts that New Balance is putting out,” said another industry insider. “It makes perfect sense that they’d want their name right on the Mass Pike like that. I could even see them starting by moving into a smaller space [than their expansion needs dictate] to start with and expanding from there in some of the vacant space at Brighton Landing.”

While several sources said they believe athenahealth will eventually decide Brighton is its best option, one high-ranking real estate investment officer said he thinks Harvard will find a way to retain one of its best-performing tenants.

athenahealth’s year-over-year third quarter revenues grew 33 percent to $83.7 million, ahead of the market’s estimate of $83.1 million, according to reports. During the quarter, the company reported $1.9 billion in collections posted to client accounts compared to $1.5 billion a year ago. The number of active medical providers using the company’s cloud-based electronic billing service increased to 31,675 compared with 26,317 providers a year ago. The number of active medical providers using its cloud computing service for health records also grew, to 5,849 from 2,818 a year ago.

“I don’t think Harvard will let them go,” that source opined.