JUPITER, FL-After one of the healthcare real estate sector's best-known and prolific developers of medical office buildings died after a long battle with brain cancer in late 2006, the industry wondered in unison about what would become of the company he founded and ran with great aplomb.

After Bruce A. Rendina's death, his 26-year-old son, Richard, was left in charge. During a two-year span from 2005-07, Rendina Cos. sold its property management division and nearly its entire MOB portfolio to Windrose Medical Properties, which was later acquired by Health Care REIT.

Did these events mean that the company would take its proceeds from the sale and close up shop?

Not by a longshot. Healthcare Real Estate Insights recently caught up with Richard M. Rendina – now a veteran chairman and CEO at age 33 – to talk about what's happened since his father's death and where the company is headed. Rendina's colleagues at the development firm include his brothers Michael, the chief operating officer, and David, the Internet marketing analyst. In addition to its headquarters in Jupiter, Redina also has offices in Dallas, TX and Solana Beach, CA.

Following is an abbreviated version of the first part of Healthcare Real Estate Insights' four-part interview with Richard Rendina. (Some questions and answers have been edited for brevity).

HREI: Just as your company reached a major milestone by breaking ground on the first project to be sold and started under your leadership in 2007, the Great Recession hit. Can you please bring us up to speed on what has happened during the past several years?

Richard Rendina: Sure, will do. Since January of 2007, we've built up 22 projects in total (including one value-added acquisition), and that's over 1.1 million square feet. We also did one additional portfolio sale in 2010, where we sold five assets to Healthcare Trust of America, prior to them going public. But since then the goal and the focus and the strategy – especially given my age and my brother's age, and the youth of this company – is long-term hold, repeat business and ethical business… So right now the focus is not on selling the pipeline. The pipeline is pretty robust. The focus is now on building a portfolio.

HREI: How many projects do you have under development?

RR: We've had three to four projects breaking ground every year since 2010. We currently have three projects under construction, and we have five more with very high probability for either the tail end of this year or 2014. There's certainly more hanging out there that we're working on, but those five I feel very confident about.

HREI: What projects do you have under construction?

RR: We broke ground in October on the $10 million, 32,750-square foot Southside Regional Medical Arts Pavilion in in Petersburg, Va., which is scheduled to open in August for Community Health Systems. We broke ground in January for the $16 million, 60,000-square foot Bluffton Medical Campus in Bluffton, S.C., which will be completed this fall for Tenet Healthcare Corp. And the third is the 41,000-square foot Green Medical Pavilion for Akron General Medical Center. This MOB is attached to the 100,000-square foot health and wellness facility we completed for them in 2012.

HREI: How about projects in the pipeline?

Rendina: We're in the midst of solidifying a fantastic relationship in the New Jersey market with one of the largest health systems in New Jersey and that's going to provide both development and acquisition opportunities for us.

Murray W. Wolf is the Founder and Publisher of Healthcare Real Estate Insights™, the nation's first and only publication totally dedicated to covering news and trends in healthcare real estate development, financing and investment. For more information, please visit www.HREInsights.com.