A Marina del Rey orthopedic surgery practice that’s made a name for itself treating Olympians and celebrities is opening a sizeable location in the Bayview Corporate Center in the Back Bay area of Newport Beach next year.
Disc Sports and Spine Center recently leased nearly 35,000 square feet of space at the Bayview Corporate Center, the office complex that previously held the headquarters of failed savings and loan operator Downey Financial Corp.
Disc—short for Diagnostic and Interven-tional Surgical Center—plans to move into the space by March, according to brokers who worked on the deal
The new location is near the intersection of Jamboree Road, MacArthur Boulevard and the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road. It will be used as a surgery center and for outpatient treatments.
The Newport Beach office is the first location in Orange County for the practice. Disc also counts a location in Beverly Hills in addition to its Marina del Rey headquarters.
It’s one of the largest tenants to take space in OC’s office market this year. It also is one of the larger examples of existing office space being converted to a non-traditional use.
Disc currently counts a staff of nearly 30 doctors and about 60 nurses, according to the company’s website. The center hasn’t announced how many staff members it will be hiring for the Newport Beach location.
The center was founded in 2006 by Chief Executive Robert Bray, one of the country’s better-known neurological spine surgeons.
In addition to spine and back medicine, the practice counts specialists in neurosurgery, orthopedics, pain management, internal medicine, and chiropractics.
Disc has acted as the official medical center of the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Kings, in addition to the U.S. Olympic team.
Celebrities
The practice also has landed some celebrity patients, including actress Jennifer Grey, who credits Disc for helping her get into good enough shape to win on television’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
The Newport Beach site is expected to draw its share of high-end local clients who would otherwise trek to Los Angeles, said Jeff Manley, chief executive for the Newport Beach office of tenant brokerage Cresa Partners LLC.
Nearby Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian is expected to provide a good source of business, said Manley, who represented the tenant along with Cresa’s Lindsay Nicholas.
The lease is the biggest tenant for the Bayview Corporate Center since the 332,000-square-foot complex sold for $53 million last year to Salt Lake City’s SK Hart Management LLC.
The new landlord has ties to Khosrow Semnani, a wealthy Salt Lake City businessman who made his fortune in the environmental and waste disposal business.
The 2009 sale was the largest office deal in the country overseen by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The FDIC seized Downey’s assets in late 2008 after the company’s thrift failed amid bad loans.
Disc will be taking ground floor space at the 3501 Jamboree office building, as well as a smaller building next door at 301 Bayview Circle.
Approvals
The tenant had to get city approvals for converting some of the office space to medical space and allow for surgical uses, Manley said.
The Bayview complex still has about 200,000 square feet of empty space and is nearing a deal for another 80,000 square feet, said Jeff Morgan, senior vice president with the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
CB Richard Ellis, which has its local offices in the complex, also has the listing on the buildings, which are getting a multimillion dollar renovation.
The new owner is expecting a majority of the space at the complex to be filled with more traditional office tenants rather than medical uses or other alternative-use tenants, said Morgan, who worked on the deal with colleagues Carol Trapani and Jake Stickel.
Disc “sought this building out—it wasn’t something the new ownership (expected),” Morgan said.
Outfitting existing buildings for alternative use has been seen more of late in the local retail market, particularly with gyms and fitness centers grabbing big blocks of space in Irvine, Costa Mesa and Fullerton vacated by traditional retailers such as Mervyns and Circuit City.
