Laser Spine Institute Abruptly Shuts Down Locations in Four States

TAMPA, FL—Laser Spine Institute has ceased operations, turning out the lights at its corporate headquarters here, as well as at other surgical facilities in Ohio, Arizona and Missouri.

The firm announced on Friday that despite initiatives that garnered significant cost savings over the past six months that allowed it to achieve what it termed as an “operational turnaround,” it could not secure the necessary financing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that would have allowed it to continue operations. The cost savings activities undertaken in the last six months included the closure of three surgical centers.

In addition to its corporate headquarters at 5332 Avion Park Drive in Tampa, the firm also shut the doors at its other three locations—8888 E. Raintree Drive in Scottsdale, AZ; 450 N. New Ballas Road in the St. Louis suburb of Creve Coeur, MO and 644 Eden Park Drive in Cincinnati, OH.

“My heart goes out to our great, dedicated staff who have stuck with us through all of our adversity and worked so tirelessly to help us right the ship,” says Jake Brace, Laser Spine Institute’s CEO, who was brought in late last year to help restructure the company. “We celebrate their efforts to keep the company going, as well as their great track record of providing nearly 100,000 surgical procedures, thereby helping patients afflicted with chronic neck and back problems quickly and effectively regain their prior lives.”

In its announcement released on Friday the company stated it ceased operations immediately. The company is reaching out to other surgical providers in the markets where they operate to determine whether these providers have the capacity to absorb the additional surgical demand.

Company representatives are also reaching out to all patients who were slated to have surgery in one of the company’s four surgical centers to notify them of the company’s closure and refer them to other in-market options. The company will also provide facilities for patients to receive the requisite post-operative care.

The closure will affect approximately 600 Laser Spine Institute employees, according to the Tampa Business Journal.

Raleigh, NC-based Highwoods Properties, Inc., the owner of Laser Spine Institute’s 176,000-square-foot headquarters building, commented on the impacts of the firm’s closure on its finances. The six-story building, which was developed by Highwoods, has been used by Laser Spine Institute, a long-term customer of Highwoods, for its company headquarters and an ambulatory surgery center.

Ed Fritsch, CEO of Highwoods, said, “This is obviously disappointing to us and others affected by this sudden closure. Looking forward, the building is well-located at Avion Park in the heart of Westshore next to Tampa International Airport. We purposefully designed this building with 29,000-square-foot floor plates, floor-to-floor dimensions providing 10’ to 12’ floor-to-finished-ceiling heights, floor-to-ceiling exterior vision glass, highly-visible parapet signage, an above-market parking ratio and other aspects that are attractive to office users.”

He adds that Highwoods’ 3.6 million-square-foot Tampa portfolio was 95.3% occupied at year-end 2018.

As a result of Laser Spine Institute’s sudden closure, Highwoods expects to write-off accounts and notes receivable, lease incentives and straight-line rents receivable associated with the building, which aggregated $11.8 million at Dec. 31, 2018 and approximately $12.2 million at March 1, 2019, including non-cash items of approximately $6.8 million as of both dates. The March 1, 2019 balance will be written-off in the first quarter of 2019.

Earlier this year, Highwoods Properties announced it had sold Two Point Royal, a 124,000-square-foot building in Alpharetta, GA, and Highwoods Preserve I, a 199,000-square-foot, single customer building in northeast Tampa, for combined gross proceeds of $54.5 million. Highwoods continues to serve as property manager of Highwoods Preserve I.