Empty Offices to Become 1M SF Medical Hub in Santa Clara
Sutter Health is planning to spend $800M to transform empty office buildings on two campuses in Santa Clara into a 1M SF medical hub.
The nonprofit healthcare giant is partnering with The Sobrato Organization and Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group to create what it calls flagship campuses on Mission College Boulevard just north of U.S. Highway 101.
The two campuses, which will be about a mile from each other, will be called Sutter West Santa Clara and Sutter East Santa Clara, SiliconValley.com reported.
“Sutter Health is launching a visionary, future-focused phased expansion plan in the heart of Silicon Valley and across our California region to improve access to patient care that is in high demand,” Sutter Health CEO Warner Thomas told the publication.
The western campus, which will encompass 700K SF, will focus on orthopedics and sports medicine, cancer treatment and heart and vascular care. The eastern campus, encompassing 300K SF, will offer comprehensive primary care and specialty clinics as well as an advanced diagnostic lab and imaging.
Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group has 2,000 physicians that are aligned with Sutter Health.
Sutter Health is planning to work with Mission College on a healthcare workforce development program for students at the community college, which has leased the land beneath the buildings to Sutter. “We see a shortage of healthcare workers in general and we want to build a healthcare workforce in the region,” Thomas said.
An abundance of available office space and a growing need for medical facilities are spawning conversion projects throughout California.
The Kelemen Company announced this month it is planning to turn about a third of a 10-story office tower in Irvine into medical facilities. The investor has been given entitlements to convert 115K SF of a 335K SF office campus known as The Atrium at 19200 Von Karman Avenue near John Wayne Airport, the Orange County Business Journal reported.
The Atrium, twin towers linked by a glass atrium, was built in 1986. Kelemen bought the campus in 2018 for $107M. The property now serves as the headquarters of Index Fund Advisors.
In August, Basin Street Properties, National Healthcare and Housing Advisors proposed to convert Harvard Park, a 23-acre office park in Sacramento’s Point West into a “community care” campus with medical and behavior health services.
In addition to adaptive reuse of existing buildings, the project plans to add 600 units of permanent supportive housing on empty land.
Last year, WellSpace Health purchased a vacant 13-acre office park site on Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento for $120M with plans to convert four partially completed buildings into a medical campus including a 24-hour mental health emergency facility, dental clinics and an institute to train health care professionals.
Source: GlobeSt/ALM