Outpatient Notes (August 2006)

MetroNational to build 35-story tower

MEMORIAL HERMANN HAS SIGNED A MASTER LEASE FOR WEST HOUSTON PROJECT

By Sonja Pedersen-Green

Memorial Hermann announced July 17 that it has signed an extended and expanded master lease agreement with MetroNational Corp. to construct a new 35-story tower on Memorial Hermann’s Memorial City at U.S. Interstate 10 and Gessner Road in west Houston.

The 915,000 square foot tower, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-2009, is part of Memorial Herman’s plan to make the Memorial City campus Houston’s second major medical center, along with the giant Texas Medical Center in central Houston.

No cost estimate was provided for the Memorial City project.

“This new master lease agreement extends our already strong relationship with MetroNational on this campus to the year 2043 and signifies our commitment to the growth of the area,” Memorial Hermann president and CEO Dan Wolterman said in a prepared statement.

“The location is at the exact geographic center of Houston and of our system of hospitals. With this announcement, we are well on our way toward establishing the Memorial City campus as the city’s second major medical center.”

Of the 35 stories, the first 15 are to be dedicated to inpatient services, including women’s, cancer and medical and surgical services. The top 20 floors will include outpatient services, physician’s offices and office space. It is to be the tallest building along the I-10 corridor in west Houston. Plans also call for a new 2,500 space garage

The construction of the new tower will also make room for Memorial Hermann departments located on other campuses across the city to move into newly renovated office space on the Memorial City campus. In mid-2010, Memorial Hermann will relocate almost all of its system office staff to the existing North Tower on the Memorial City Campus.

The North Tower will be renovated as office space once the hospital services now located there are transferred to the new tower. The renovation will comprise 375,000 square feet, which is an increase of 75,000 square feet.

Lodi Memorial

Hospital breaks

ground for new MOB

STOCKTON, Calif. – A for-profit subsidiary of Lodi Memorial Hospital will soon break ground on a 40,000 square foot, two-story medical office building (MOB) in the Spanos Business Park in Stockton.

It is not yet clear how Lodi Memorial will lease the building, but a spokesperson says that physicians could start seeing patients as early as June of next year.

The MOB could include an urgent care center, of which there is a shortage in the area. The 20,000 square foot first floor will probably include either an urgent care or an outpatient surgery center. It is also possible it might include both.

The second floor will be leased out for independent physicians’ offices.

Lodi Memorial also plans to build another 40,000 square foot building on an adjacent parcel which might include a lifestyle center.

Lodi Memorial’s subsidiary, Lodi Regional Health Systems Inc., has entered into a limited partnership agreement with Irvine, Calif.-based Triad Partners. The MOB will be jointly owned by the two upon completion.  Lodi Memorial is still securing permits, and has not yet broken ground but it is expected that construction will complete later this year.

Cogdell Spencer

breaks ground for

South Carolina MOB

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Cogdell Spencer Inc. (NYSE: CSA), a Charlotte, N.C.-based healthcare real estate investment trust (REIT), has begun construction on the Carolina Forest Medical Plaza. The 41,000 square foot MOB will be anchored by Grand Strand Regional Medical Center. Grand Strand will run an imaging center and a senior center at this location.

The MOB is to be part of the 12,000 acre master-planned Carolina Forest community, located near Myrtle Beach, S.C. The development will include single and multiple-family neighborhoods, retail stores, hotels, restaurants and professional and medical office buildings.

The MOB was 50 percent leased at the groundbreaking in June. Construction is expected to end in April 2007.

Norton Southwest

Hospital to become

outpatient center

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

Family Health Centers will establish a clinic this fall of a MOB next to the hospital. A wound care hyperbaric center is scheduled to open this fall in the space that the inpatient unit will vacate. Louisville-based Trilogy Health Services will also open an 88-bed long-term care unit in September.

For the Record

Kaiser Permanente is moving forward on a $33 million surgery center in Folsom, Calif…. Ground has been broken for two new MOBs in Monticello, Ind. The $25.5 million White County Memorial Hospital MOB is expected to begin construction in October and will open in 18 months, while another $8 million, 53,000 square foot MOB will open in 10 months…  Robins & Morton broke ground as construction manager on a $32 million project at Magnolia Regional Medical Center in Corinth, Miss. The new construction includes renovations to the emergency department as well as a new MOB, patient tower and surgery units. The project, under the direction of architect David E. Johnson, will be completed in September 2007… Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center has announced it will build a 45,000 square foot, $20 million MOB and five-story parking structure in San Luis Obispo, Calif. The hospital also has had $2.2 million in capital projects approved by Tenet Healthcare, which will go towards operating room equipment and other upgrades… Newton Medical Center plans to construct a 15,000 square foot, $12 million surgery center on the site of the hospital in Newton, Kansas. The new MOB will also include more than 55,000 square feet of space for doctors’ offices… UC Davis Health System and San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West are building a new 66,000 square foot Placer County Center for Health, which should be finished in 2008. The two companies will split the lease. The cost of the facility has not been disclosed… Skanska USA Building has been selected by the University of South Florida (USF) as the contractor for the Health South Pavilion, USF’s new seven-story, 126,000 square foot MOB at Tampa General Hospital. The $16.7 million project is expected to open in July 2007… Providence Alaska Medical Center has begun construction of a new MOB just down the road from the recently opened Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. The new MOB’s radiology services will compete with those at the Mat-Su Regional down the street. Mat-Su Regional is partnering with Plano, Texas-based Triad Hospitals Inc. (NYSE: TRI). The new 74-bed hospital cost $87.6 million to build, and opened ahead of schedule in January. The Providence Alaska Medical center began construction in December on its 12,000 square foot MOB. The building will be primarily occupied by Imaging Associates of Providence, two dentists and an orthodontist. The imaging center opened in June… Norton Southwest Hospital in Louisville, Ky., will soon be renamed Norton Southwest Medical Center to represent a series of changes in the coming weeks as it completes its transition from a full-service hospital to an outpatient center. The hospital’s remaining nine impatient beds closed Aug. 1, which transformed Norton Southwest into a completely outpatient facility. q

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