Medical Center Of The Rockies In Loveland Plans New Tower, $280M Expansion

Medical Center of the Rockies is growing into the future with a planned $280 million expansion that will add roughly 100 beds, nearly double the capacity of the emergency department and add a specialized cancer center at the Loveland campus.

(RENDERING CREDIT: UCHealth)

UCHealth, which owns and operates MCR, just announced it would break ground late next year on a five-story tower on the north side of the hospital to serve trauma-surgical, medical-surgical and surgical ICU patients. It will expand the hospital’s capacity from 187 to 283 with room to grow up to 319 beds.

“For several years, our hospitals in Northern Colorado have been operating at or near full capacity, and this investment will allow us to continue to meet the needs of our growing community,” said Kevin Unger, the president and chief executive officer of the hospital. “In addition to an increase in patient bed capacity, we are thrilled to build a comprehensive cancer center and expand our cardiac and imaging services.”

Northern Colorado grew rapidly in the last decade, with Weld County’s population up more than 30% and Larimer’s up nearly 20%. Partly because of that growth, the state has fewer hospital beds per capita than the U.S. average, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation.

The U.S. averages 2.38 beds per 1,000 residents; Colorado has 1.91 beds, the eight lowest among all states and the District of Columbia. Money for the expansion will come largely from UCHealth reserves and may include some philanthropic component.

“We don’t anticipate going out and doing any outside loans or bonds,” Unger said. “As a nonprofit health system, that’s what reserves are for. We don’t pay shareholders. All of our reserves are used for staffing, new technology, equipment and buildings. We are fortunate in Northern Colorado … to be in a population that’s growing rather than shrinking. Our goal is to continue to meet community needs, and for that we need additional capacity. The tower is one of two that will eventually be built at MCR, The beauty of MCR is because it was a greenfield build, we already planned for two new towers.”

The second tower will likely be built sooner rather than later based on the region’s rapid growth.

“We do have that expansion capability at MCR. We’re seeing higher acuity, longer lengths of stay, and population growth driving this as well as unbelievable physicians, nurses and providers within the facility,” Unger said.

With a new tower comes the need for 1,200 to 1,400 additional employees to staff the tower.

“It’s a blessing this project will take awhile to complete; it will take us awhile to staff it,” Unger said. “Construction could be the easier part of the two.”

How Will Loveland And Fort Collins Cancer Centers Differ?

The cancer center is expected to start seeing patients in mid-2024, and the new tower is expected to open in 2026. The new cancer center will feature high-dose radiation therapy, which patients currently travel to metro Denver to receive, as well as a new gynecological oncology clinic; a new radiation oncology program, including a linear accelerator; and additional medical oncology clinic and infusion space.

When it opened in 2014, the Fort Collins cancer center at UCHealth’s Harmony Road campus had room for three linear accelerators and is now at capacity.

“The core of the cancer program will still be based at Harmony … this will be more of a hub-and-spoke model,” Unger said.

Expansion Happening Throughout UCHealth Northern Colorado

The expansion comes on the heels of a $76.5 million expansion and renovation of Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and the addition of 34 beds at UCHealth’s Greeley hospital that is building out the fourth floor of the 3-year-old facility.

With the updates, the Greely facility will have 87 available beds. It opened with 51 beds and added two ICU beds during the pandemic. The PVH renovation will revamp the front entrance and two of its five floors. It is expected to be finished in time for the hospital’s 100th anniversary in 2025.

Medical Center of the Rockies opened on Valentine’s Day 2007, relieving pressure on Poudre Valley Hospital and bringing UCHealth services to the Loveland area.

In July, MCR became the only Level 1 trauma center in Northern Colorado. UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins is a Level III trauma center and Banner Health’s NCMC is a Level II trauma center. MCR has been operating as a high-level trauma center for a couple years but didn’t have the volume of trauma patients required by the state to push it to Level 1 status until now.

The state Department of Public Health and Environment requires Level 1 trauma centers to have around-the-clock coverage by trauma surgeons and specialists in orthopedics, neurosurgery and anesthesiology, either in-house or on-call. The state also requires the hospital to provide trauma prevention and education.

In 2021, MCR treated 1,853 patients who met the criteria to be included on the trauma registry. That was more than double the 880 trauma patients treated at MCR when it opened in 2007.

The $280 million project at MCR will include:

• A five-story tower to serve trauma-surgical, medical-surgical and surgical ICU inpatients, among others.

• A cancer center on the first floors of both the north medical office building and the new tower. The new cancer center will feature high-dose radiation therapy, which patients currently travel to metro Denver to receive, as well as a new gynecological oncology clinic; a new radiation oncology program, including a linear accelerator; and additional medical oncology clinic and infusion space.

• The emergency department will grow from 27 to 49 rooms and include a new entrance.

• Two electrophysiology labs and two cardiac catheterization labs will be added to the south side of the existing hospital building.

• Imaging will be expanded with additional CT, ultrasound and MRI services and an additional interventional radiology suite on the east side of the existing hospital building.

• Parking will be expanded for patients and staff.

 

Source: Coloradoan

Building Sales And Medical Growth Boosts Property Along Dallas’ Stemmons Freeway

One of Dallas’ first business districts is seeing a robust revival.

Construction of Stemmons Freeway, which started in the 1950s, sent office development northwest of downtown Dallas.(PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Dillard / Dallas Morning News Photographer)

Starting in the 1950s, office construction spread northwest of downtown along Dallas’ new Stemmons Freeway. By the 1960s, the Interstate 35E corridor between downtown and Dallas Love Field was seeing a building boom with dozens of new business addresses popping up along the highway. But the Stemmons Corridor was loslifeing its shine by the 1990s, with many of the big office employers headed to newer pastures in North Dallas, Irving and Plano.

Now the area is seeing a rebound, with multiple property sales and plans for construction.

 “It’s amazing how things have transitioned over there — it’s all of a sudden gentrified,” said Gary Carr, vice chairman of Newmark Group.

Newmark has recently handled several office building lfie sciencessales along Stemmons Freeway and Mockingbird Lane The commercial real estate firm is marketing the two Mockingbird Towers, one of the largest office properties in that area.

“The growing interest in the area is due to the local boom in medical and life science operations,” said Carr. “A big part of it is the hospital district and the growth at Parkland Hospital, UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical. They’ve taken a ton of office square footage over there. Development is also a result of Love Field expanding and everything moving in that direction.”

The centerpiece of the Pegasus Park project is this 18-story office tower that was once the headquarters of jeweler Zale Corp. and, before that, Exxon Mobil.(PHOTO CREDIT: Elias Valverde II / Dallas Morning News Staff Photographer)

Redevelopment of the former Exxon Mobil office tower on Stemmons at Commonwealth Drive has spurred other investments along the highway.

Small Investments and Lyda Hill Philanthropies converted the vacant office high-rise into a mixed-use office campus for biotech firms and nonprofit organizations called Pegasus Park. UT Southwestern Medical Center, Massachusetts-based BioLabs and Taysha Gene Therapies along with other firms have taken space in the building.

“Pegasus Park is growing as we expected and attracting lots of new activity,” the owners said in a statement. “It is truly becoming the center of the life sciences cluster here in North Texas, and we are excited about continuing to build the ecosystem.”

Small Investments acquired a second office tower for redevelopment at 2525 North Stemmons.

A Wisconsin-based medical real estate firm, Hammes Partners, has purchased the largest office building in Dallas’ Stemmons Freeway corridor northwest of downtown — the 20-story Trinity Towers at Stemmons and Inwood Road.

Ricchi Tower along North Stemmons recently sold to the city of Dallas for more than $14 million.(PHOTO CREDIT: Shafkat Anowar / Dallas Morning News Staff Photographer)

The city of Dallas spent more than $14 million to buy the Ricchi Tower at 7800 North Stemmons to be used for “city services and operations.”

And a California-based medical real estate firm, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, bought a vacant block at the northeast corner of Mockingbird and Harry Hines Boulevard where it’s planning a medical campus, real estate brokers say.

The Alexandria site is across the street from Exchange Park, where UT Southwestern is eyeing a major expansion.

“What’s happening in the area is truly exciting,” said Kolby Dickerson, vice president of TXRE Properties. “When I got down there 10 years ago, it seemed like nobody else wanted to work there. You have new and well-capitalized owners putting money into the buildings and providing great quality office space at a discount to the overall market. It’s probably the most affordable office space in Dallas. The activity is growing as people are getting priced out of Uptown, Las Colinas and even buildings on Central Expressway.”

TXRE Real Estate has bought and sold offices in the Stemmons Corridor and still has properties in the area. Dickerson said developers are taking a look at the locations for building sites for apartments and other projects.

An Austin-based apartment builder is buying a vacant office at 8001 Stemmons that will be demolished to make way for rental units.(PHOTO CREDIT: Shafkat Anowar / Dallas Morning News Staff Photographer)

OHT Partners, an Austin-based apartment builder, is buying a vacant office building at 8001 Stemmons Freeway and plans to demolish the property and put up rental units.

“You can get a lot of land down there that is already zoned at prices that are way less,” said Jake Milner, who is working with J. Scott Lake of Davidson Bogel Real Estate to broker the property sale to OHT Partners. “We are already getting calls from other owners in the area saying, What is my dirt worth?’ ”

 

Source: Dallas Morning News

Medical Office Commercial Real Estate Continues To Gain Strength

Any medical facility likes to hear about improving conditions. That’s exactly what medical office buildings are experiencing: improved fundamentals that make property owners, investors, and operators healthy.

Colliers has a Q3 2022 report on healthcare real estate that covers performance in the top 100 U.S. markets.

“Despite economic concerns and industry challenges, the medical office property sector (MOB) continues to go from strength to strength, setting record highs for asking rents, sales volume, and pricing over the past four quarters,” read the report’s overview. “Demand is outpacing supply, vacancy remains tight, and capitalization (cap) rates have remained relatively stable. As a result, development activity is gaining momentum, reflecting confidence in the sector.”

But it comes with a caveat: the healthcare industry they depend on isn’t feeling so rosy. Pricing pressures are under way, and MOB owners that could mean monitoring and potential course of treatment.

On the plus side, average vacancy in the top 100 metros in the first half of 2022 was 8%. That was 40 basis points below the same period the previous year. The top 10 markets ranging from 6.3% in Boston to Houston’s 12.3%.

Top 100 average Los Angeles had the highest net MOB asking rents at $36.85 per square foot. That was quite the outlier.

“However, none of the other top 10 metros have an average MOB rent higher than $30 per square foot,” the report said. “Boston and New York are the next highest at $26.26 per square foot and $26.19 per square foot, respectively.” Although numbers for the lowest prices in the top 10 didn’t appear, a graph clearly showed that four—Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, and Philadelphia—were significantly below the national average.

To try pacing demand, construction rose, with completions of 14 million square feet in the four quarters ending with Q2 2022. That was up from the 13.7 million square feet from the previous 12-month period. MOB under construction rose more sharply, from 30.9 million to 37.1 million square feet.

And investor demand was strong at $17.2 billion in the four quarters ending with Q2 2022, the highest on record. Though that was largely due to the last quarter of 2021, which according to an included graph stood far above other quarters.

MOB is largely in a position to weather economic storms, as medical care is something difficult for many people to forego. But practitioners are also eying costs.

“In the face of reduced income and, in some cases, operating losses, some providers are cutting staff despite an overall shortage of employees in the healthcare industry.”

That would suggest real estate overhead will also be under scrutiny.

As an increasing amount of MOB is taken up by larger organizations—hospitals, HMOs, and other big operators—lowering those costs are likely to be on their agendas, and they have fiscal muscle to negotiate hard.

 

Source: GlobeSt.