Investor Group Buys Irvine Spectrum Plot for Medical Building
By VITA REED
An $11 million, 43,000-square-foot medical building is set to go up in the Irvine Spectrum.
The project, called Irvine Medical Plaza, is planned for the corner of Waterworks Way and Laguna Canyon Road at the western edge of the Spectrum. Investor group Irvine Medical Holdings spent $4.2 million to buy the 3.1-acre parcel from The Irvine Company.
Construction on the two-story medical building is set to start in October. Completion is expected by May.
The project’s backers hope the plaza will lure a host of medical groups and healthcare companies, said Fred Alaghband, Irvine Medical Holdings’ general partner, in a release.
Irvine Medical Plaza is set to be less than a mile from Irvine Regional Hospital Medical Center, one of 10 Orange County facilities owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp. of Santa Barbara.
Irvine-based Advanced Construction Solutions Inc. is the contractor as well as developer of Irvine Medical Holdings. Ware Malcomb Architecture Planning Interiors of Irvine is the architect.
Colliers Seeley International Inc.’s Irvine office is handling marketing and leasing of Irvine Medical Plaza.
“At this point, there’s tremendous interest,” said John Wadsworth, the Colliers Seeley broker who represented Irvine Medical Holdings in the land buy. Doctors’ groups and ambulatory surgery centers are among those who have shown interest, Wadsworth said.
No leases have been signed yet. Wadsworth said last week that Irvine Medical Plaza was in various stages of talks and believes some 60% of the building may end up being preleased.
“For a spec project, that’s well ahead of the curve,” he said.
The medical office building market within Irvine has a vacancy rate of less than 1%, according to Wadsworth. He said Irvine counts some 600,000 square feet of medical office space.
“If you look at South Orange County, including Irvine, there’s only a 2.5% vacancy rate,” he said.
Medical office buildings, Wadsworth said, face several development challenges, such as making sure there are enough parking spots. Location also is key,being near hospitals or in an area where there are similar facilities, such as the Woodbridge section of Irvine.
A similar medical building is nearing completion in Anaheim, Walnut Grove Medical Center near Tenet’s Western Medical Center-Anaheim. It’s a 40,000-square-foot, two-story facility being built by Boureston Todd Development Inc. of Costa Mesa. Walnut Grove already counts a handful of tenants.
Boureston Todd also built a $12 million, three-story office building near Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center.
Advanced Construction Solutions’ recent projects include the Catalina Medical Office Building, a two-story, 22,800-square-foot facility in Santa Ana, as well as two Irvine Spectrum projects.
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