$20M Groundbreaking Jumpstarts Phase Two Planning

The suburban project's first phase will deliver in March 2005 on 4.6 acres abutting the hard corner of Medical Center Drive and Texas 121. "We are completely positioned to look at surrounding land to do a second building," Paula Borschow, partner in Dallas-based America Medical Office Partners LP, says, telling GlobeSt.com that talks have begun with an adjacent landowner.

America Medical is teaming with 11 physicians, led by Dr. Amanullah Khan of McKinney, for the project at 4201 Medical Center Dr., right across the highway from North Central Medical Center. Borschow says America Medical was one of five medical office developers interviewed a year ago by Khan's group to team on the 4201 Medical Center Dr. project. The development started with 25,000 sf and "took on a life its own and grew to a 56,000-sf building," she says.

The $20-million cost for the initial development includes land, building and equipment. The largest long-term lease is 8,742 sf for an imaging center. Khan's full-service cancer center will fill 8,400 sf while a pain management and physical therapy clinic will take up about 7,800 sf. Everything from a sleep lab to physicians' offices round out the rest of the roster.

The Dallas/Fort Worth suburbs, in all directions, have become hotbeds for medical office and clinic development to get services at the doorsteps of residents. Khan points out that the cancer center will keep patients from driving into Dallas, a minimum 33-mile drive along often congested freeways.

The Dallas-based Precept Builders is the general contractor for a Hill Country design crafted by Fernando Andrade of GSR-Andrade Architects in Dallas. JKS Landscaping, also Dallas, is the landscape architect. The Frisco branch of SNB Bank of Dallas provided a $9.3-million construction loan. When the project's done, America Medical Office Partners will lease and manage it.