Led by Dr. Kenneth Hollis of Clear Lake, the group will build a 50,000-sf to 60,000-sf medical complex, Naveen Jaggi in the Houston office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. tells GlobeSt.com. The development site takes up the southwest corner of Medical Center Boulevard and Kobayashi Drive, which has a Webster address but is considered part of the Clear Lake Medical Center District.

Jaggi, the deal's sole broker, says the doctors paid close to $1.2-million asking price, which breaks down to $5.95 per sf. Columbia Business Park Ventures of Houston was the seller, which had intended to develop the acreage. Jaggi says a change in the business plan brought the parcel to market about a year ago, but there was very little activity until a few months preceding the closing. Then, he found himself holding two firm offers, one of which was from the physicians' group.

Jaggi predicts the ground will break before year's end. He estimates it will take six to nine months to complete the project.

According to Jaggi, recent construction in the Webster area has spawned a surplus of office space, which takes away the incentive for a third-party developer to construct additional space. Despite the surplus, he says it was unlikely that the group of doctors would find one building with enough space accommodate all of its members so the decision was made to buy and build.