Orthopedic Physician Associates treats a wide range of bone, joint and muscle problem conditions. The privately held practice employs 18 physicians who perform between 450 and 500 surgeries a month, with a majority of those being out-patient procedures outside of Swedish's network of operating rooms but also on First Hill. It also provides a number of other related medical services for sports teams and individual patients.

If it chooses James Tower, its 40,000 sf would be on a single floor. It would need two floors in Swedish's proposed building, but it would be on Swedish's main campus, atop of a brand new orthopedic institute. If it chooses Opus Northwest's project, it would occupy the entire building, giving it more of a headquarters feel, and still be only two blocks west of Swedish's First Hill campus. Regardless of which location it chooses, it will be paying a gross rate in the low to mid $40s per sf.

OPA is currently housed in three of the other known medical office options in the area, Equity Office Properties' Nordstrom Medical Tower at 12th Avenue and Madison Street, where it has been located for 21 years; Sabey Corp.'s Jefferson Tower, on Swedish's Providence campus; and 1101 Madison, a former Swedish-owned building acquired by publicly traded Health Care Property Investors at the end of 2004. Neither property has enough contiguous space available to house OPA's consolidated operations.

Eric Blohm of Flinn Ferguson tells GlobeSt.com that the company is looking to secure a location in the near term but won't be relocating any sooner than 18 months from now. By that time, Opus' project should be complete and, in the best case scenario, Swedish's project would be about six months out. Sabey's James Tower, meanwhile, is standing at the ready with 150,000 sf of contiguous availability on the first six floors.