Bristol Park Medical Group, a longtime Orange County group medical practice, paid $11.2 million for a 51,588-square-foot building in Tustin that’s slated to be its headquarters.
Bristol Park’s new building is at 2742 Dow Ave., near the Eastern (261) Toll Road and Walnut Avenue in the Irvine Business Complex.
Bristol Park is moving because it makes financial sense to own its headquarters rather than renting a building, said John Somers, chief operating officer. It also continues the company’s consolidation of financial operations that it started about six years ago.
Some 185 workers will move to the Irvine office, he said.
The company’s set to move from 2501 S. Pullman St. in Santa Ana, a 50,000-square feet building that faces the Riverside (55) Freeway, in December.
Rocky Tarantello of Tarantello & Associates in Costa Mesa represented Bristol Park in the deal. Brian Garbutt of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services Inc.’s Newport Beach office represented the seller, Universal Properties.
Lee & Associates marketed the Dow Avenue location as new and upgraded, with more than $25 per square foot spent on improvements.
The building sold for $217 per square foot.
“The user market’s still strong because there’s no risk. They are occupying the property themselves,” Garbutt said.
The building previously was occupied by Rockwell Collins Inc., a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based maker of aerospace electronics, for 15 years.
Rockwell Collins got into that building through its 2002 buy of Airshow Inc., which was based in Tustin. Rockwell moved out earlier this year.
Bristol Park was established in 1961. The company has almost 90 doctors and more than 600 workers. Major practice areas include family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics.
The group has 11 locations throughout the county.
At one time, Bristol Park was affiliated with the Orange-based St. Joseph Health System, which managed Bristol’s finances. The medical group then had its business and administrative offices at 1100 W. La Veta Ave., near the St. Joseph corporate office.
Six years ago, Bristol Park ended its affiliation with St. Joseph after deciding it was easier to manage rising healthcare costs and other financial risks independently.
That move cost it some other professional alliances. Officials from Health Net Inc. of Woodland Hills specifically cited Bristol Park’s break from St. Joseph as one reason it ended a business relationship with the health system. Health Net and St. Joseph have since resumed working together.
Bristol Park moved office and administrative workers into its Pullman Street building, which was vacated by Caltrans, around that time.
