Groundbreaking took place earlier this month on Verde Medical Center, a significant new medical office project serving a fast-growing part of the East Valley.

Verde Medical Center will be a 39,000-square-foot, Class A medical office building located at the southwest quadrant of Williams Field Road and Recker Road in south Gilbert. The building is part of a larger mixed-use project called Verde at Cooley Station which includes approximately 95,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and fitness operators, a 25,000 square foot of creative office building and three multi-family residential projects totaling more approximately 750 units.

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Verde Medical Center is being developed by Florida-based Sina Companies, which recognized the need for additional medial office space in the submarket. Plaza Companies — whose Chairman & CEO Sharon Harper knew Sina Companies founder Malcolm Sina for years from serving on industry related boards together — is managing the leasing for the property.

“We are excited to enter the East Valley medical office market and to bring this exceptional project to life,” said Robert Sina, Principal with Sina Companies. “Verde Medical Center will provide an important new hub for healthcare in Gilbert and an important amenity for the region. This was an ideal opportunity for us to enter this market and create a significant new Class A medical property.”

Norman Brody, Managing Member of the team developing Verde at Cooley Station, said the new medical office building will be a key component in the overall development.

“We are pleased to have such an experienced medical office team in Sina Companies and Plaza Companies working with us on this exceptional project,” he said. “There’s a significant need for new medical office product in this area, and Verde Medical Center will be a high-quality addition to this growing part of the community.”

Already, Sina Companies and Plaza Companies have reached agreement with three tenants of the new medical office building, with more negotiations ongoing:

• Adventure ABA, LLC, a local Arizona company that provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy in Phoenix and surrounding areas for the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders.  This will be their fourth Valley location and they have been serving the Valley for more than five years.

• Desert Valley Pediatric Therapy:  Founded by a Speech Language Pathologist, Desert Valley Pediatric Therapy offers speech, occupational, and physical therapy to children with a variety of developmental delays and injuries. DV Pediatric Therapy has one other location in the Ahwatukee area and looks forward to serving the east valley families.

• Ignite Physical Therapy provides Osteopractic physical therapy for adults, along with other services including integrative dry needling, ASTYM, Myofascial cupping, functional strengthening and more. Ignite PT has one other location in Chandler.

“We are very pleased with the leasing activity we’ve seen around Verde Medical Center and the excitement about what it will bring to the community,” said Margaret Lloyd, Senior Vice President-Brokerage Services with Plaza Companies. “This facility has already drawn a significant amount of interest from healthcare practices that want to expand their footprint in the East Valley, and we are looking forward to welcoming even more practices to this new building.”

The intersection of Williams Field Road and Recker Road has seen explosive growth in housing over the past couple of years with just under 5,000 multi-family and single-family housing units within walking distance of Verde Medical Center, and more under development. This growth is the driving force behind the need for this site and for more medical office out in the community, not just on hospital campuses.

Plaza Companies currently has approximately 12 million square feet in its overall property portfolio, including numerous high-profile projects including SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, Park Central, the Creighton University-Phoenix Health Sciences Campus and the TGen Building, among others.