Outpatient Projects: Huge cancer center planned for NYC

Former city-owned site will be home to 21-story, 750,000 square foot facility

By John B. Mugford

In the heart of perhaps the world’s most costly real estate market – Manhattan – building a new outpatient healthcare facility can be quite an undertaking, and an expensive one at that. If you’re going to build something, you should probably go all out with something large and important.

That’s exactly what Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, which calls itself the country’s oldest cancer hospital, is planning to do.

In recent months, the cancer center, which provides inpatient and outpatient treatment as well as cancer research, teamed up with Hunter College of The City University of New York (CUNY) in acquiring a 1.5-acre lot along FDR Drive just off the East River. The seller was the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). The purchase price was $215 million.

As noted, Memorial Sloan-Kettering has big plans for the site, as it is proposing a 21-story, 750,000 square foot outpatient building that, according to its current proposal, would provide patients with treatments in the areas of lung, head and neck, and hematologic cancers.

The facility, which would take up about 60 percent of the parcel, would also be home to an upgraded bone marrow transplantation program, as well as other services. The remaining 40 percent of the property would be home to a 16-story, 336,000 square foot building housing Hunter College’s Science and Health Professions Center.

According to Hunter College officials, the building would provide the institution with an opportunity to upgrade its science and nursing programs and give its faculty a chance to be in close proximity to a number of well-known medical and research institutions in the immediate area.

The site of the future facility is amid a number of well-known hospitals and medical facilities. Among them is Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s main 470-bed campus, which sits about five blocks from the future development. 

“This new facility will play a critically important role in our overall cancer care delivery system,” Dr. Craig B. Thompson of Memorial Sloan-Kettering said in a prepared statement for the media. “It will have a patient-oriented physical design, making their experience as streamlined and easy as possible. It will also offer our physicians and other healthcare professionals an inspiring and efficient environment in which to provide care.” 

In expanding upon what the new facility will provide for Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s physicians and staff, and its patients, Dr. Thomson noted: “And because of the physical proximity to our main hospital, there will be cohesiveness among all our departments.

We are fortunate to live in a time of enormous opportunities to bring novel and more-effective treatments to patients with cancer. This new component of our clinical enterprise will touch many lives and extends Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s historic commitment to the control and eventual cure of cancer.” 

According to officials with Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the future facility will enable the cancer center to further develop “innovative outpatient treatment programs, extend its high-quality care to a greater number of cancer patients, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce the cost of cancer care while meeting the growing demand for services as the population ages.” 

The cancer center received the right to purchase the property after the New York City Department of Sanitation issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the sale and development of the site, at 525 E. 73rd St. The sanitation department operated a garage facility on the property through 2008.

The RFP called for redevelopment proposals for new healthcare, education or scientific research facilities while also providing a way to finance a replacement sanitation garage. 

As part of the proposal, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing at CUNY’s Brookdale campus will eventually be vacated and ownership of the site will revert to the city of New York, which will redevelop the site with, most likely, a new sanitation garage, a residential project and public space.

As of recent weeks, further details about the new facilities planned by Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Hunter College, such as the projects’ starting dates and estimated costs, had yet to be released. The institutions are in the midst of a public review process with the city. 

While other contractors have yet to be named, the building design, which is still in preliminary stages, is being done by a collaboration of two New York firms, Perkins Eastman and Ennead Architects. 

 

$18 million MOB planned near Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A new medical office building (MOB) is in the works for a site directly across the street from one of the largest hospitals in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

Charlotte, N.C.-based Brackett Flagship Properties LLC was recently chosen as the developer of an MOB in the Silas Pointe redevelopment area just off Silas Creek Parkway near U.S. Interstate 40 in western Winston-Salem. 

Bracket Flagship was chosen by the property owner and master developer of the 20-acre redevelopment district, Lenoir, N.C.-based Broyhill-Silas Pointe LLC. 

As for the MOB, it is to be developed on a 5-acre parcel within the redevelopment area, which is expected to include new office, retail and residential facilities. The redevelopment area fronts Silas Creek Parkway directly across from the 921-bed Forsyth Medical Center, which is part of Novant Health. The system has administrative offices in both Charlotte and Winston-Salem. 

“It’s has been our vision that a medical office offering within Silas Pointe would be a key component and catalyst within our overall development,” said Ed Broyhill, a partner in the Silas Pointe development, in a statement. 

“With Brackett Flagship’s depth of knowledge and experience, we look forward to taking the next steps in realizing this vision.” 

While plans for the MOB have yet to be finalized, officials expect the building to have up to 80,000 square feet of space. Local reports indicate the project, if built to its fully planned capacity, would cost about $18 million and kick off construction in the redevelopment area. 

To get the project rolling, Brackett Flagship began demolition of a former Elks Lodge building on the site in recent weeks. The company anticipates having its plans finalized in the first quarter of 2013.

Charles Campbell, co-managing partner of Brackett Flagship Properties, added in a statement: “This is an outstanding location and presents us with an opportunity to provide medical users with first-class facilities that will be conveniently located and highly visible.” 

In local reports, Mr. Campbell said that the company has been talking with potential tenants, noting that interest has been “strong.” 

Reed Griffith of Brackett Flagship and Mary Z. Benton of Winston-Salem-based Zaytoun Real Estate are handling leasing for the project. 

Charlotte-based Peterson Associates PA is the architect; Winston-Salem-based Stimmel Associates is overseeing land planning; and Frank L. Blum Construction Co. of Winston-Salem is coordinating site demolition and preparation.

 

$21 million MOB starts replacement campus in Grand Junction, Colo.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – A new replacement campus for Community Hospital in Grand Junction has been kicked off with the start of construction on a two-story, 86,000 square foot MOB.

Development Solutions Group (DSG), which has offices in Denver and Madison, Wis., started development in December on the future $21 million building, which is slated for completion in early 2014. Within 18 months after the MOB is complete, Community Hospital plans to start construction on its future replacement facility, which could have up to 108 beds. 

The ownership of the MOB, to be called Canyon View Medical Plaza, involves a partnership that includes the hospital (which will own 10 percent), DSG (50 percent) and five physician groups (40 percent). 

The hospital has owned the 40-acre site on the west side of Grand Junction, in the far western part of the state, and near U.S. Interstate 70 for a number of years, recently selling 6.1 acres to DSG for the development of the MOB. Grand Junction has about 60,000 residents and is home to two hospitals, the other being the 350-bed St. Mary’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center. 

The five physician groups with ownership stakes and future tenancy in the building are: Pelvic Health & Wellness Center; Surgical Associates of Western Colorado: Urological Associates of Western Colorado; Mesa Women’s Health Care; and Western Orthopedics & Sports Medicine. 

Community Hospital will also be a tenant in the building, offering urgent care, outpatient imaging and a retail pharmacy.

Local officials are hoping that the start of construction on the future MOB will spur other new commercial developments nearby, including retail shops, restaurants and others. According to officials with Community Hospital, which is part of Colorado West Healthcare System, the hospital’s current 78-bed facility in the heart of Grand Junction is outdated and sits on a site with no opportunities for expansion. 

The general contractor for both the MOB and the replacement hospital is Greenwood, Colo.-based G.H. Phipps. 

 

Former Walmart to be redeveloped as MOB in Plymouth, Mass.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. – For a number of years, a major landowner and development company has been trying to find a user for a former Walmart site in Plymouth, near the city’s waterfront overlooking Cape Cod Bay. 

The site is part of an overall master-planned, multi-building redevelopment project by a local company, Janco Development, which has plans for up to 1.5 million square feet of space in what is known as Cordage Commerce Center. 

It looks as if the company has found a developer for the 8.4 acre Walmart parcel, as Milwaukee-based Summit Smith Healthcare Facilities has proposed a 76,000 square foot MOB on the site. 

The two-story building, which still needs city approval but is an accepted use for the zoning, would be designed with a red brick façade to be in keeping with other buildings in the Cordage Commerce Center.

Summit Smith, which is a subsidiary of C.D. Smith Construction Inc., would buy the site and retain 393 of the parking spaces that were used by the former Walmart. Walmart has since opened one of its Supercenter stores a short distance from Cordage Commerce Center. 

The Milwaukee-based healthcare developer was founded in 1992 and has built facilities throughout the country since then. Among other projects, it is currently developing a 192,000 square foot outpatient clinic for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Green Bay, Wis.

The facility, which is slated for completion in late 2013, will include space for ambulatory surgery services, a specialty clinic, a women’s clinic, cardiology services, diagnostic imaging and services. 

 

More Outpatient Projects

■ Plans call for breaking ground in early 2013 on a 110,000 square foot expansion of the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Gilbert, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb. The new space will allow the cancer center to offer additional outpatient services, more cancer-fighting equipment and new treatment areas. Officials say demand continues to grow for the services offered at the campus by the partnership between Phoenix-based Banner Health and Houston-based University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The new space will be added to the south side of the existing 130,000 square foot outpatient building and will include three linear accelerators, bringing the total, eventually, to six. Also to be added are 30 additional clinic exam rooms, for a total of 60, 13 additional infusion bays, for a total of 53, and other expansions. The architect is Dallas-based HKS Inc.; the general contractor is Redwood City, Calif.-based DPR Construction. 

■ Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is gearing up to start offering services in a new 75,000 square foot MOB on 10 acres adjacent to its Moreno Valley Medical Center in the city of Moreno Valley. The city, located near Riverside, is in the far eastern suburbs of Greater Los Angeles. Officials say the new $48 million building will centralize most of Kaiser’s local healthcare services and doctors nearby, making it easier for about 110,000 patients in the area to receive care. Starting in February, a laboratory, pharmacy and a radiology services area will be open for business, with other areas to follow. The new building is a replacement for a former 5,000 square foot MOB on the hospital campus. Kaiser acquired the hospital campus, which had been known as Moreno Valley Community Hospital, in 2008.