SAN DIEGO-Competition among health systems to attract patients to their providers has created a demand for high design in medical offices. The need to draw patients in is placing in high demand those developers with the ability to provide posh, pampering medical-office environments, particularly in San Diego, according executives at Pacific Building Group here.
“Medical office is a continuing growth market,” James Roherty, president of PBG, tells GlobeSt.com. “We're seeing medical-office buildings help attract patients to certain healthcare groups.”
Roherty gives the example of a recent project: the renovation of Sharp Rees-Stealy Hospital in the Sorrento Mesa submarket here, which now features a spa-like environment spurred by the increasing competition among health systems.
Aside from cutting-edge architecture and interior design, modern MOBs are also offering patients WiFi in the reception areas, separate areas for urgent care and physical therapy and softer finish materials, created to enhance the patient experience, adds Allison Beall, PBG's director of business development. “The idea of taking the fear of out healthcare is creating a softer feeling that's not so clinical. You don't feel like you're in a medical facility—you feel like you're going into a resort.”
Roherty says that overall, it's becoming recognized that healthcare architecture and landscapes affect how patients heal, leading to medical offices that look out onto gardens and include soothing colors, finishes, architecture and artwork. Also, “The general contractor's role is more of a design/build general contractor who hires an architect and creates different groups in a team effort.” This method allows for greater cost accountability and more effective collaboration on projects.
Greg Rogers, CEO of PBG, tells GlobeSt.com that moving forward, hospitals in San Diego “won't need more beds—they have enough bed space as medicine is being delivered in neighborhoods, online, in satellite buildings around hospitals, through cancer centers and surgery centers. This is a whole different way of looking at medical-office space.”
As GlobeSt.com previously reported, Pacific Building Group was the general contractor for the development of Bressi Ranch Medical Plaza LLC in Carlsbad, CA, in 2008. The property is situated on a 1.94-acre property at the corner of El Camino Real and Town Garden Rd. and at the time was the only medical-office building in the master-planned community of Bressi Ranch. It was also the only medical building for sale in the South Carlsbad area, according to the developers.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
