Plan Calls for Offices, Hotels, Hospital

The new project will be called Ontario Gateway and will be about a mile from Ontario International Airport. Bates has submitted its plan to the City of Ontario and hopes to start construction late this year.

The Bates Co. will build the medical offices and the office tower along with the parking structure. New street construction is expected to commence later this year and the office tower construction is expected to begin in mid-2007, with completion set for spring 2008. Office leasing will be handled by Carol Plowman and Paul Earnhart of Lee & Associates.

The development of the hospital will be led by Dr. Jeereddi A. Prasad, president and chairman of Ontario-based ProMed Health Services, a health care service plan and management services corporation, and also with Inland Empire-based Chaparral Medical Group. The development of the hospital is a response to the rapid population growth in the area, which is one of the fastest-growing in the country.

The developers cite office space statistics from CB Richard Ellis that show a vacancy rate of 9.12% for Ontario with positive net absorption and increasing lease rates. They point to a hotel market analysis completed for the City of Ontario by PKF Consulting that forecasts rapid growth in Ontario's hotel industry.

The Bates Co., headed by Gil Bates, president, is also developing the Parkway Business Center, a 16-acre project featuring a 100,000-sf five-story class A office building as well as 11 smaller buildings for sale or lease. The project site is nearby at the intersection of Interstates 10 and 15 in Ontario. Completion of first phase of the Parkway Business Center is anticipated second quarter of 2007.