Plaza Companies has partnered with a national real estate developer to build a new class-A medical office building on Banner Estrella Medical Campus in Phoenix.
Plaza is partnering with Duke Realty in a joint venture to build the project. Founded in 1972 in Indianapolis, Duke Realty has a significant national real estate portfolio, but this is one of their first entries into the Phoenix marketplace.
Plaza Companies was selected because of its extensive experience in medical office construction and development, as well as its experience in both construction and leasing on the Banner Estrella campus. Plaza Companies is one of the premier medical office real estate firms in Arizona, with a portfolio of properties Valleywide. Duke Realty owns, or maintains an interest in approximately 141 million square feet of industrial and office assets, including medical office, in 22 major U.S. metropolitan areas.
The facility, located on the southeast corner of Loop 101 and Thomas Road, will be called Banner Estrella Medical Plaza II and will be designed to complement an existing building—also constructed by Plaza Companies—which opened on the Banner Estrella Medical Campus in 2005. The new addition to the campus will be a Class A, five-story, 70,000-square-foot building initially, with future expansion capabilities up to 125,000 square feet. The building will boast a direct, pedestrian-friendly connection to the hospital, abundant parking and will be highly visible from the 101 freeway. The 50-acre medical campus is owned by Banner Health and a long term ground lease has been agreed upon by the parties for the development of this project.
Construction is anticipated to begin this year, and preleasing is underway with a number of tenants in current negotiations. Similar to the first building on the campus, equity ownership in the building is available to physicians that sign leases prior to the building opening. This program has been extremely successful for the physician owners of many of Plaza properties and offers an added unique opportunity for the tenants.
“We are looking forward to this project and building a facility that will complement the success of the first Medical Plaza on the Banner Estrella campus,” said Sharon Harper, President & CEO of Plaza Companies. “This is yet another sign of the growing need for healthcare services in the west Phoenix area. For years to come, this facility will serve thousands of people in need of medical care.”
The Banner Estrella Medical Campus is a 392-bed full-service acute care hospital specializing in bariatrics, cardiology, cancer care, pulmonology, maternity services and women’s health, neurosciences and orthopedics, among other specialties. Approximately 1,400 health care professionals and support staff work on site and a medical staff of over 700 physicians serve the West Valley communities of Avondale, Buckeye, Glendale, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Peoria, Surprise, Tolleson and west Phoenix.
Banner Estrella is part of Banner Health, the leading provider of health care services in the Valley, with 11 hospitals. In 2010, Thomson Reuters named Banner Health one of the Top Ten Hospital Systems in the U.S.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to partner with such trusted leaders in medical office real estate,” said David Kaubish, Vice President of Finance at Banner Estrella. “This project will mean an expanded Medical Center campus which can better meet the demands of the West Valley.”
