Companies (July 2008)

Lillibridge MOB in Texas wins international TOBY

CHICAGO – In late June, Chicago-based Lillibridge received big news at the BOMA International North American Commercial Real Estate Congress and the Office Building Show in Denver. Seton Northwest Health Plaza in Austin, Texas, was awarded the International TOBY Award (The Office Building of the Year) from BOMA, the Building Owners and Managers Association.

Earlier in the year, Seton Northwest Health Plaza, which Lillibridge owns and manages, received the 2008 local TOBY Award for the best medical office building (MOB). Then in April the building won the TOBY Award for the Southwest Regional Conference.

According to Becky Dickerson, Lillibridge general manager, BOMA’s judges “liked the way our team improved our building and gave us high marks on our building description and Energy Star involvement.” Energy Star is a government-backed program that helps businesses become more energy efficient. Ms. Dickerson said in a press release that a staff of six at Lillibridge worked on preparing the building and putting together the supporting materials for the BOMA competition.

Seton Northwest Health Plaza is a five-story, 110,000 square foot medical facility that opened in 1988. It includes skylights and an open atrium and is connected to Seton Northwest Hospital by two enclosed corridors.

Stern Brothers finishes bond sale for Missouri project

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis-based Stern Brothers & Co. recently completed a $100 million bond issue for a 192,864 square foot expansion project at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia, Mo.

Arlan Dohrmann, managing director, represented Stern Brothers & Co. on the issue – the company’s largest 2008 healthcare project so far. The sale will fund construction of a new seven-story patient tower with 96 medical/surgical beds, and a new 900-space parking structure.

Stern Brothers & Co. Managing Partner Jeff Malone and President Terrence Finn also worked on the financing. The Series 2008 bonds were rated ‘A3’ stable by Moody’s Investors Service and ‘A’ stable by Fitch Ratings. They are an obligation of the Boone County Hospital Board of Trustees. The revenue to pay for the debt service is derived from lease payments under a lease agreement with Boone County, the board of trustees and CH Allied Services, an affiliate of St. Louis-based BJC Health System.

A joint venture between St. Louis-based general contractor S.M. Wilson & Co. and Centralia, Mo.-based Reinhardt Construction Co., is building the expansion The architecture firms on the project are Dallas-based HKS Inc. and New York-based Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.

Hammes Co. nears completion of facility in Virginia

HAYMARKET, Va. — Brookfield, Wis.-based Hammes Co. is nearing completion of a 78,000 square foot outpatient center in Prince William County, Va. Hammes is developing the Haymarket Health Center on the site of possible future hospital for Prince William Health System, based in Manassas, Va., about 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

Construction recently concluded on the outpatient project, which is located on a 38-acre site in a new housing development called Market Center. The health center is located at the intersection of U.S. Interstate 66 and Route 15 in Haymarket, a site that’s about 15 miles from Prince William Hospital in Manassas.

The new facility, which is slated to open soon, will house ambulatory care, medical office space, and outpatient services that include diagnostic imaging center, emergency services, and physical, occupational and speech therapies. Plans call for connecting the project to an inpatient surgery center of a future hospital planned for the campus. In addition to housing physician practices, the Haymarket Health Center will have an outpatient surgery center scheduled to open in early 2009.

Hammes co. has been working with Prince William Health System since 2003. The outpatient facility will be owned by a joint venture of Hammes Co. and physician tenants who invest in the project.

“This new MOB will make convenient, comprehensive healthcare in rapidly-growing western Prince William County a reality,” said Kevin Kraiss, a senior vice president with Hammes Co., in a press release.

Meanwhile, Prince William Health Systems and Fairfax, Va.-based Inova Health System have decided not to merge. Officials with the two systems say recent changes enacted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) threatened to delay the completion of the merger by up to two years. In a press release from the Prince William system, officials said both health providers concluded that the prolonged process was not in the best interest of the health systems and the communities they serve.

As part of the merger, Inova was prepared to invest as much as $200 million into the Prince William system. 

Construction starts on Trammell Crow project in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. – Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. recently started development of a four-story, 95,000 square foot medical office building (MOB) on the campus of Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Va.

Trammell Crow, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (NYSE: CBG), is developing the MOB on behalf of its wholly owned subsidiary, Partners Health Trust. Also involved in the development is a state retirement system advised by Morgan Stanley Real Estate, which is part of New York-based Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

Construction started in recent weeks on the future MOB, Forest Medical Plaza, which is slated for completion in April 2009. It will include a 20,000 square foot ambulatory surgery center operated by Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. A cardiovascular group, Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists, has signed a lease for more than 17,000 square feet on the first floor of the building.

Eric Fischer, a principal with Trammell Crow’s office in Washington, D.C., said in a press release that physician/tenants are being offered a chance to invest in the project during the next year.

Lewis Stoneburner Jr. and Walton Makepeace of the Richmond office of CB Richard Ellis are handling marketing and leasing for the building.

The architect on the project is Baskervill, of Richmond, Va., and the general contractor is W.M. Jordan Co. Inc., of Newport News, Va.

Nemours unveils plan, contractors for Florida hospital

LAKE NONA, Fla. — The Nemours Foundation of Jacksonville, Fla., recently unveiled the site plan for its future $400 million, 95-bed children’s hospital campus in Lake Nona, Fla., located near Orlando. Nemours also named its team of contractors for the 60-acre project, which is expected to be under construction in 2009 and be finished by 2012.

The designers on the project are Chicago-based Perkins+Will Group Ltd. and Atlanta-based Stanley Beaman & Sears Inc., a firm that focuses on designing pediatric facilities. 

The construction manager on the project is Parsippany, N.J.-based Skanska USA Building Inc., which is part of Stockholm, Sweden-based Skanska. Nemours says it is seeking the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) designation for the complex.

The site plan includes space for a future Ronald McDonald House and community partnership building.

More Company News

■ Tellepsen Builders, based in Houston, recently started construction as the general contractor on the $220 million Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus in Houston. The 490,000 square foot medical complex is being built on 55 acres just off U.S. Interstate 10. The architect on the project is the Houston office of Austin, Texas-based PageSoutherlandPage. The campus provides both outpatient and inpatient services and has the only pediatric emergency room in west Houston. The project is being built in phases, with an outpatient clinic building and the inpatient facility scheduled to be completed by 2010.
■ The Plaza Cos. of Peoria, Ariz., recently completed the development of a $25 million, 110,000 square foot MOB on the campus of Paradise Valley Hospital in Phoenix. The class A building, called Paradise Valley Medical Plaza, has five stories and a multi-level parking structure. The building is about 75 percent leased, according to a press release from the Plaza Cos. Tenants include a cardiovascular consulting group, a pediatric practice, a surgical clinic, and a urology group. Paradise Valley Hospital is part of Phoenix-based Abrazo Health Care, whose parent company is Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems Inc.

■ St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. recently completed the $170 million, 237,734 square foot West Tower at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. The Newport Beach office of McCarthy was the general contractor on the project, which represents the final phase of a master planned building project that started 18 years ago. The architect was HDR Inc., of Pasadena. The new tower has 128 private patient rooms and 32 acute-care beds. It meets California’s seismic safety regulations.

■ Skanska USA Building Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., and joint venture partner Shook Construction of Dayton, Ohio, recently announced that they have been named construction manager for the $135 million Miami Valley Hospital Heart Tower in Dayton. Seattle-based NBBJ was chosen to provide the design services for the 484,000 square foot patient tower. Ground was broken in May on the project, which is slated for completion in late 2010. The main component of the project is a comprehensive heart center, which will include 180 private patient rooms, a cardiac intervention center and cardiac surgery suites. The plan calls for enough future capacity to add 72 additional private patient rooms, a new patient/visitor entry lobby, two levels of underground parking, overhead pedestrian connectors and a loading dock. Skanksa USA is a subsidiary of Stockholm, Sweden-based Skanska.

■ In other news from Skanska USA, the firm was recently named construction manager for a 100,000 square foot, three-story addition at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, Calif. The $118 million project, which includes the renovation of about 12,000 square feet of existing space, is expected to take about three years to complete. The architect is San Francisco-based Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz. The existing hospital will be up and running during construction. 