by Carla Zeineh

czeineh@crittendennews.com
https://twitter.com/REDevelopers

University affiliated hospitals are a fundamental part of shaping the next generation of doctors, but they could also be one of the driving forces for the next development cycle.  Developers will have numerous opportunities to profit as many campuses will look to partner or outsource some or all components of their medical projects. 

Campus space is being pushed to the limit so it’s no surprise that costly expansion plans are on the drawing board for many.  The University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) and Princeton HealthCare System both outline more than $400M of new development activity, while Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Health System will invest $200M-plus in a new children’s hospital.  Stanford University Medical Center gets ready to sink $3.5B into its medical campus. 

 
Close ties to the academic world provide university hospitals with the most advanced medicine, including the latest in research.  Academic hospitals are forced to comply with the highest standards of practice, and typically have ample funding to keep those standards up.  In addition to developing new hospital bed space, facilities will team up with developers to put in adjoining medical office space.  This space can serve as extra room for surgeries, outpatient procedures, or even testing.  More importantly, space is reserved in the hospital for beds.  Count on strong leasing from physicians who target these prime hospital spots for office space. 

 
UCH will invest $400M to develop a second inpatient tower at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., and is in the process of selecting an architect and general contractor.  The 12-story project will be about 720,000 s.f. and will include a much larger emergency room, more operating rooms and additional diagnostic and treatment facilities to help meet the growing demands of the center, which is the only academic medical center in the Rocky Mountains.  A total of 144 staffed inpatient beds will be added to the existing 407 beds.  The project needs to break ground by early 2011 if UCH wants to meet its goal of a 2013 opening. 

 
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Health System in Hershey, Pa., hopes to have the new Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital up and running by fall 2012.  The project is slated to cost $207M and will deliver 252,000 s.f. of new space and 118 pediatric beds.  Pediatric surgical suites, private pediatric and adolescent patient rooms, outpatient clinics for children with cancer, and a new pediatric radiology unit will be included in the facility.

The Medical Center is also collaborating with Select Medical Corp. on the Penn State Hershey Rehabilitation Hospital.  The 54-bed acute care facility will be located approximately one mile from the new children’s hospital. 

Stanford University Medical Center is in the entitlement process with the City of Palo Alto, Calif., to help move the hospital’s $3.5B pipeline forward.  Stanford is making progress with the project and has issued the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which will be available for comment through the end of this month, at which point final EIR and development agreements will be negotiated.  At a substantial $2.5B, the Stanford Hospital & Clinics component is the largest.  The goal is to replace the existing structure with one that is seismically safe with today’s standards.  Approximately 824,000 s.f. will be added, bringing an additional 144 beds to the campus. 

Stanford has also filed proposals for a $1B expansion of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital that will add another 441,000 s.f. of space and 104 beds.  The group anticipates beginning construction of the Stanford Hospital and expansion of the Packard Children’s Hospital no earlier than 2011.  Other additoons to Stanford’s campus include the replacement of 415,000 s.f. of space at the University’s School of Medicine, in addition to developing 46,000 s.f. of new space at the Hoover Pavilion site.