St. Jude Medical Center is gearing up to build a three-story medical office building near its main campus in Fullerton.
The 73,000-square-foot building, when it is completed, will house, among other things, the St. Jude Breast Center and the Virginia K. Crosson Cancer Center. It is going to be built on land across the street from the hospital on North Harbor Boulevard and Valencia Mesa Drive.
St. Jude plans to start construction next spring, according to Joan Taylor, the hospital’s director of service line management and business development. “We’ll be moving in phased patterns,” Taylor said, noting that all moves should be completed at the end of 2003.
Taylor, however, wasn’t able to provide a cost estimate for the building because “we’re in the schematic design phase and the project has not gone out to bid.”
AC Martin Partners Inc., a Sacramento-based firm with an office in Irvine, is the project’s architect.
St. Jude Breast Center and the Crosson Cancer Center are now in around 18,000 square feet of leased space on East Valencia Mesa Drive, across from the hospital’s main building.
St. Jude is building a new facility for several reasons, according to Taylor. She said one reason was seeking long-term financial stability through ownership, rather than paying rent.
Another reason, Taylor said, had to do with a need for additional space. She noted that the new building will add 30% more square footage for breast health and cancer programs.
In addition to the cancer and breast centers, St. Jude also plans to put its entire radiation oncology department in the new building, to improve the continuum of care for its patients, Taylor said. The hospital’s radiation oncology facilities are currently in St. Jude’s main building.
“You never put radiation in a leased building,” Taylor said, pointing out that hospitals need to own such facilities in order to build safety storage vaults.
St. Jude’s new building, Taylor said, is an outgrowth of the hospital’s planning review prompted by a state law requiring acute-care hospitals to meet more stringent seismic safety standards. She said St. Jude also will retrofit and add to its existing hospital building and build a new parking garage.
St. Jude is one of three local hospitals owned by St. Joseph Health System, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Orange. St. Jude’s sister facilities are St. Joseph Hospital-Orange and Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. n
