Downtown Is Medically Underserved

LOS ANGELES—Wembley Realty Advisors, Matar Pacific and Robhana Group have received approval to build a 60,000-square-foot medical office property in Downtown Los Angeles at Hoover St., Washington Blvd. and the I-10 freeway. The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development considers the Downtown Los Angeles market a “medically underserved area,” and the developers aim to fill that void with this speculative project. The project will break ground next year and will be ready for occupancy in 2018.

“Robhana saw this under-developed property as an opportunity to bring needed infrastructure to the Downtown area,” Peter Becronis, a principal at Wembley Realty Advisors, tells GlobeSt.com. “Robhana engaged Wembley Realty Advisors and Matar Pacific to first validate the proposed healthcare development, and entitle and develop the resultant medical office building.”

In addition to being an underserved area with a lack of available medical buildings, the affordable care act has also spurred greater demand for more and larger medical office space. Becronis adds that there have been “several large healthcare providers seeking to penetrate the Downtown marketplace to attend to the shortage in primary care physicians.”

As such with high-demand markets, the developers have already received interest from prospective tenants. “Several notable tenants have expressed interest in the opportunity to lease space in a class-A, new purpose built healthcare facility with prominent exposure along the I-10 Freeway,” Adam Matar, principal of Matar Pacific, tells GlobeSt.com. “The team is evaluating the offers as they are presented, and believe based upon the initial response that the team will be able to bring quality proactive healthcare to the greater Downtown area.” The development team, which includes Robert Hanasab of Robhana Group, expects leasing to be completed by the end of the year due to the high demand for this type of space.