Compact disc maker Cinram International Inc. has sold its 15.5-acre Anaheim plant site to Kaiser Permanente, which intends to raze the existing buildings and erect a new hospital and patient-care complex there.
Oakland-based Kaiser paid $14.5 million for the site, according to real estate sources. The new facilities are set to replace Kaiser’s aging 200-bed Lakeview Avenue hospital in Anaheim, which the company decided cannot be brought up to recently enacted state earthquake standards.
Toronto-based Cinram recently moved its Anaheim operations out of state.
Kaiser plans to open the first phase of the complex in early 2006 and the second phase, including a hospital with 300-plus beds, in 2011, according to Janice Head, senior vice president and service area manager. “Ultimately, we will be vacating the facility on Lakeview,” Head said. “This is a prime location. The parcel is adequate for our needs. It’s off the 91, between two exits.”
The first phase of Kaiser’s patient care complex is set to contain a surgical hospital and birthing center, Head said. The surgical hospital calls for 36 beds, while the birthing center is being planned to handle 300 deliveries a year.
Kaiser officials have projected that the complex could eventually employ 3,000 doctors, nurses and other workers, provided its Orange County membership reaches 500,000. Kaiser doesn’t yet have a final cost estimate for the new project.
Kaiser, known primarily as a health maintenance organization operator, now has around 327,000 OC members and 3,319 local employees.
“This is our response to the seismic (law). Retrofitting Lakeview would be even more costly and cause an extremely significant disruption in patient care,” Head said.
California’s earthquake safety law, finalized four years ago, is forcing many hospital operators around the state to either retrofit their buildings or construct new ones. The law has two major provisions: All hospitals built before 1973 must conduct a seismic evaluation and submit a compliance schedule to the state by January 2008. By January 2030, all acute-care hospitals must be able to be self-sustaining for 72 hours after a major earthquake.
The building was completed in 1977 for Rockwell International Corp. It was most recently occupied by Cinram, which replicates movies and software on digital video discs and compact discs.
Cinram, which spent four years in Orange County, left as part of a corporate consolidation effort. The Anaheim operations will be moved to Cinram facilities in Alabama and Indiana.
“Part of the reason we’re moving is that we have contractual obligations to make the discs out of our Huntsville plant,” said Bruce Deck, Cinram’s engineering manager at the Anaheim plant, in a May interview. “And another thing is it’s simply too expensive to do business in California. It’s getting more expensive every day.”
Rob Socci of Voit Commercial Brokerage’s Anaheim office represented Cinram in the deal. Mike Finley, Mike Merk and Bob O’Neill, all of Grubb & Ellis Co., represented Kaiser. n
Daniel D. Williams contributed to this story.
