Orange County’s famously tight medical office market is getting a bit more breathing room this fall.
Irvine Heritage Medical Plaza, a $27 million medical office complex in the Irvine Spectrum, is moving closer to completion.
Six of 26 planned units in Irvine Heritage still are available, said Nick Carey, an associate with Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Newport Beach office who is marketing the offices. Irvine Heritage is set to finish construction in mid-November.
Irvine Heritage, at 18 Endeavor, has three stories and 40,800 square feet of space. The project has attracted doctors in family medicine, primary care, ear, nose and throat, eye plastic surgery, dermatology and geriatrics.
Duran Construction is building Irvine Heritage. Jon Lundstrom and Associates designed the building.
Irvine Medical Plaza LLC, a group of local doctors and investors, bought 3.1 acres of land last October for $9.3 million, or just more than $3 million an acre, comparable to what some homebuilders paid for lots in Irvine during the housing boom.
The Irvine Company sold the land to the group.
Medical space is at a premium in OC,brokers estimate vacancy rates are in the 1% range.
Irvine Heritage’s bare offices are set to sell for $620 to $670 per square foot. The largest offices, at about 2,100 square feet, were going for around $1 million per square foot. There’s also a pharmacy planned.
Irvine Heritage is the first medical building completed in a section of the Spectrum set aside for that type of development and known as the Irvine Medical Campus.
Other projects on the campus include Irvine Medical Arts, a three-story, 63,430-square-foot building, and Odyssey Medical Center, a two-story, 51,100-square-foot building.
IDM Pharma Slammed
Irvine’s IDM Pharma Inc. got hammered last month on Wall Street on news that the Food and Drug Administration denied approval for Junovan, its bone cancer drug.
Regulators wanted more clinical trial data, IDM said. The company is working to gather the data and plans to submit an amendment to its drug application for Junovan by early next year. IDM said it had anticipated the FDA’s request for more details.
Junovan is used to treat a rare form of bone cancer called non-metastatic osteosarcoma, which typically affects children and young adults and often is fatal.
IDM licensed Junovan from Swiss drug maker Novartis SA.
IDM, which still is considered a development-stage company, counted a market value of $40 million at recent check. Its shares slumped 20% on the news of the denial.
Junovan has prompted big swings in IDM’s shares.
Back in early April, IDM saw its stock spike, rising 167% after news that the drug developer was going to meet with regulators about Junovan. In May, IDM’s shares fell when a FDA panel recommended against approving the drug.
Edwards Oxygen Monitor
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. of Irvine recently introduced a new oxygen saturation monitoring system for the pediatric market. The product is called Edwards PediaSat Oximetry Catheter.
PediaSat, a central venous catheter, uses fiber optics to monitor and identify potentially life-threatening changes in oxygen saturation of venous blood in children. In a release, Edwards said the technology used in the device was previously only available in devices aimed at adults.
Edwards said that PediaSat could be used for children who have congenital heart disease, complex heart conditions, sepsis and septic shock, trauma and brain injuries, lung disease and transplants.
The device is one of Edwards’ other products,heart valves and related products make up most of the company’s sales.
I-Flow Presents Results
I-Flow Corp., a Lake Forest device maker, said results of a study covering its On-Q pain relief system in colorectal surgery are going to be presented this month at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Chicago.
Blue Cross
After we published estimates for Blue Shield of California’s health maintenance and preferred provider organization figures in our Aug. 13 lists, we received updated information from the health plan operator. Our estimates were fairly accurate, though here are exact figures. Blue Shield’s PPO enrollees are 117,126, versus our 110,000 estimate. The number of PPO doctors available in OC is 6,691, according to Blue Shield.
