CREJ - Healthcare Properties - January 2018
Adjacent marks the spot for the last significant development parcel at Sky Ridge Medical Center. National Healthcare Development will break ground in the second quarter on Pinnacle at RidgeGate, an 80,000-square-foot medical office building to be constructed at the entrance to Sky Ridge in Lone Tree. The site’s location, adjacent to the hospital off Interstate 25 and RidgeGate Parkway, offers a unique opportunity for tenants, noted Jecoah Byrnes, CEO of National Healthcare Realty. “This is going to be the ideal building for medical practices that want to expand or relocate to Lone Tree and take advantage of a very dynamic health care ecosystem,” Byrnes said. “We are offering tenants the ability to have a premier campus-style location without all of the usual restrictions and complications they would typically encounter in a hospital-owned medical building. “This is the last significant development parcel around the Sky Ridge Medical Center,” he continued. “Any future medical development will have to take place across the freeway to the east, as the area immediately surrounding the hospital is now either built or under development.” The “campus-adjacent” location also is a plus to tenants as it allows not only providers the convenience of being just a few steps from the campus but also allows tenants much more flexibility in terms of how they practice and how they affiliate with the hospital, added Byrnes. “There is substantial interest from medical practices that want to be near the hospital but not necessarily buried inside the campus without signage and parking. We also are offering physician investment, which is something that the doctors can’t get by leasing space on the hospital campus.” “We will be easy to find at the doorstep to the main hospital campus” said Rick Needham, president of National Healthcare Development. “Not only will we be the most convenient option, but we are creating a project that offers great parking and really well-designed floor plans to make the patient and provider experiences exceptional.” The three-story building offers floor plates of approximately 26,600 sf – highly sought-after from medical practices that are growing in size and, consequently, need larger offices, said Byrnes, who is handling preleasing of the project. Currently, only a few suites remain on each floor. Expected to be complete in summer 2019, Pinnacle at RidgeGate’s first tenant is Colorado Orthopaedics, which signed a 10,000-sf lease at the building. Additional tenant names will be announced this spring and will include tenants new to the area as well as existing tenants that are moving from the hospital campus or from older medical offices nearby. Lease rates for Pinnacle at RidgeGate aren’t being disclosed, however, “The developer worked hard to be able to offer competitive lease rates in the area for tenants who otherwise would be leasing second- and third-generation space as opposed to brand new Class A medical office space,” added Byrnes. Boulder Associates is the project architect. Fransen & Pittman is the general contractor. The development of Pinnacle at RidgeGate helps meet the need for MOB space in the market, National Healthcare emphasized as the city benefits from not only job creation efforts that have spurred an already medical environment but also Lone Tree and Douglas County offer some of the strongest demographics in the nation with more than 80 percent of residents maintaining private health insurance and accessing medical services at least once annually. “There is absolutely a need for this product type,” said Byrnes. “The hospital recently completed a large bed tower and medical office expansion and they are fully occupied now. The success of Sky Ridge is another example of the amazing growth that’s happing in Lone Tree and Douglas County, which equates to the need for more medical office space.”