A doctor has paid $5 million for a 21,447-square-foot Fullerton building near the Riverside (91) Freeway with plans to create a medical office complex for himself and others.
Mark Song, an internist who recently moved to Fullerton from Garden Grove, bought the building on Brookhurst Street.
“His whole idea when he bought it was to create a medical center for other doctors,” said Mitch Zehner, a senior vice president at Voit Commercial Brokerage LP’s Anaheim office.
Zehner and colleague Louis Tomaselli represented the building’s seller, KB Venture.
Robin Yi of Central Properties in Los Angeles represented Song’s Fullerton Medical Center in the acquisition.
Song is using less than a fifth of the space at the building, according to Zehner. The rest of the building lends itself to be divided up into offices, he said.
“He immediately saw the value of it,” Zehner said of Song.
The building is eight parking spaces to an office, Zehner said. Most medical-use offices have a 5-to-1 or 6-to-1 parking ratio, he said.
“Everything is new from ground up, except the walls,brand new roof, brand new interior,” Zehner said.
Song’s Fullerton Medical Center plans to lease space to other doctors rather than sell offices as condominiums.
The doctor turned down a vocational school that offered to lease the rest of the building, according to Zehner.
The building dates back to 1960. It started life as a hospital and evolved into a building for a medical insurance billing company.
Two potential buyers also planned to buy the empty building and create medical suites.
“We marketed it for a while and it went in and out of escrow three separate times, twice to medical developers, entrepreneurial type of guys,” Zehner said.
The sale is one of several involving medical office buildings during the past year. The sector is hot, with vacancy rates hovering around 1% and new space commanding premium rents.
In May, Warner International Network LLC, a private investment group, paid $7.3 million, or $220 per square foot, for the 33,070-square-foot Warner Village Medical Center near Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Medical Center.
Other recent medical real estate deals include Newport Beach-based Greenlaw Partners LLC’s $12.3 million purchase of a 61,640-square-foot Yorba Linda facility.
