Officials at Facey Medical Group’s outpatient center in Mission Hills are aiming for bigger and environmentally better with a new building it plans to move into in 2012, a response to increasing healthcare demands in the community, officials said. The medical office will move less than a block north of its current location. At the new site, a currently standing Verizon building will be demolished and a new center will be built, said Prub “P.K.” Khurana, administrative director of strategy and planning for Facey Medical Foundation. The project, which Facey staff members have been planning over the past year, is expected to create a larger and more up-to-date facility, growth of patient services and more jobs. The medical group has been leasing its current site since 1964. The new site, which begins construction during the first quarter of 2011, will be a three-story building of about 124,000 square feet. That represents an increase of about 30,000 square feet from its two buildings where Facey currently serves its patients. Facey has signed a 20-year lease with San Diego-based Pacific Medical Buildings for the new structure, which will cost about $50 million to build, Khurana said. Facey is set to provide $15 million to $20 million of the cost with the healthcare facility developer footing the rest of the bill. “We’re building and designing a cutting-edge medical facility that will be able to incorporate all the new medical equipment going forward, including the continued use of Facey’s existing electronics medical record system,” said Jake Rohe, vice president of development for Pacific Medical Buildings. The new building will have a historic mission-style design and is set to be one of the first medical office buildings of more than 100,000 square feet in the region to be LEED-certified to the Silver level, Rohe added. Facey will also continue leasing one of its current buildings, a space of about 35,000 square feet, where it will run its administrative operations. That would allow the new structure to be fully focused on patient services. Growing needs Khurana said the growth is desperately needed as the baby boomer population ages. “The healthcare needs of the community are growing, and we want to be able to grow and service those needs for the future,” Khurana said. “The population is generally getting older, and we are seeing them utilize more healthcare and we are bringing in more specialists like neurologists, orthopedics and (rheumatologists), which are heavily used by senior patients.” In spring, the medical group already moved its Porter Ranch site to a location five times larger than its former site because of higher demand for service. The group also expanded to a larger site about five years ago in Valencia, and will likely do the same in Canyon Country in about four or five years, Khurana said. A new medical office opening, which could be located in the West San Fernando Valley region, is currently being considered as well. “It not typical for a medical group to grow like we grow,” Khurana added. Additional features New additions planned for the building include space for a pharmacy to sublease, a certified endoscopy center and an expanded infusion center. Hallways and exam rooms will be larger and patients will be able to check in at a single location. With the new space, Facey will have the capacity to hire about 17 primary care physicians and specialists over a five-year period, along with about two or three support staff members for each physician or specialist, Khurana said. Environmental improvements being considered include energy-efficient lighting, the use of recycled materials and reduced water usage and energy consumption. Facey and Pacific Medical Buildings are also planning to plant about 150 trees on the property, Khurana said.
Facey Medical Group Plans Expansion to Meet Demand
