HOUSTON-Stonehenge Development LLC has jumpstarted a 180,000-sf facility on the Women's Hospital of Texas campus after securing nearly $24.8 million in construction and permanent financing.

One Medical Plaza, already 90% pre-leased, will deliver in September 2005 on land leased for 99 years from the hospital owner, HCA Healthcare Corp. of Nashville, according to Live Oak's Robert LaRue, who arranged the financing.

Stonehenge, led by Kevin Matocha and Todd Edwards, secured a 15-month construction loan with a Libor-based floater from Dallas-based Guaranty Bank and an immediate roll to permanent financing upon completion. GE Healthcare Financial Services, a business unit of Stamford, CT-based GE Commercial Finance, will fund the permanent loan with a 15-year term and a fixed rate that locks at the borrower's discretion, LaRue tells GlobeSt.com. "The borrower can decide when he wants to pull the trigger on the rate...to lock it in," he explains.

The building is under construction at the junction of Fannin and Greenbriar streets, just south of the Texas Medical Center. The largest tenants signed to date are Obstetrics and Gynecological Associates and Kelsey Seybold Clinic.

LaRue says the project was complicated to pull together. "Because the building is a new development, Stonehenge had to pre-lease a substantial part of the building," he says. "As part of the transaction with the hospital, we had to negotiate the construction of a parking facility to benefit both the building and the hospital campus as a whole. I feel all the parties involved--the developers and the ownership, the hospital, the tenants, the lenders, and yes, even the lawyers, exhibited remarkable patience throughout the negotiations. This one had a lot of moving parts."

Stonehenge relied on Hamilton Watkins Ross Architects to design One Medical Plaza. EE Reed, also from Houston, is the general contractor.