Medical practitioners filling up Community Physicians Pavilion

LAFAYETTE ? The new Community Physicians Pavilion is building bridges, both literally and figuratively, between the network of physicians it houses, and the adjacent hospital and medical offices that make up the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette.

The first medical practitioners started moving into the nearly 70,000-square-foot facility in early November 2004, and more than 60 percent of the offices are booked.

?I am happy to report that the new facility is coming together very well,? said Katie Paganucci, Exempla?s administrator for physician services. ?We are really focused on bringing in those practices that meet the needs of the community. We are committed to quality so that is a factor that we really pay attention to in our recruitment strategy. We feel we have brought in some very strong practices.?

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The four-story building has several innovative features that are attractive to both patients and medical staff. They include high-speed infrastructure for data communications between facilities, a circular drive, a touch-screen directory kiosk and a covered walkway that allows direct access to Exempla Good Samaritan hospital.

?We like the building, and we are very glad that we are here,? said Dave Demchuck, chief executive of Front Range Orthopedic Center, which has leased a satellite office at the pavilion to complement a headquarters in Longmont. ?It is very easy to see from U.S. 287, and it has great parking. It is also easy to follow once you get inside, and the covered walkway is a tremendous asset for our physicians to access the hospital. It sure seems like our patients like having a second choice for location so this facility is working out very well for us.?

Exempla and its developers have designed the four-story building with a specialty focus for each floor. The top floor focuses on families with offices specifically for women?s and children?s care. The third floor brings together specialty surgery groups. The second floor houses orthopedic and spinal practitioners, and the first floor is designed for high-visibility retail such as the pharmacy and ophthalmology services. The number of suites will be determined by the final needs of its tenants. Each floor is designed with signs corresponding to different seasons in Colorado.

?For example, the family floor on the top level is a winter floor, and we are trying to use as many Colorado images as possible,? explained Kristine Gritz, Lillibridge?s facility manager for the Community Physicians Pavilion.
Several medical offices already have booked space in the building including Front Range Orthopedic Center, Eye Care Center of Northern Colorado, Flatiron Surgery Associates, Center for Pediatric Medicine and the Women?s Health Group, whose physician Steven Volin delivered Good Sam?s first baby.

Another innovative use is the pavilion?s timeshare suites, which are available from up to one half-day per week.

?This is a really popular and attractive option for physicians who want to have a base clinic and still operate a satellite office here. They recognize the opportunity to be a part of Good Samaritan, and this allows that opportunity without moving their office to a completely different community,? Paganucci explained.

Exempla?s partners on the project include Chicago-based developer Lillibridge, leasing agents Health Connect Properties, general contractor Saunders Construction and Davis Partnership Architects, who are providing final design services to tenants.

?A hospital should not have to put its capital into medical office buildings. We work with hospitals to design a project, market and lease it, all funded by Lillibridge. The hospital can then put their capital into their core business. This has been a great relationship, and we are exited to be part of a brand new campus in a new market for Exempla,? said Sydney Scarborough, executive vice president for business development for Lillibridge. He has been very pleased with Lillibridge?s partnership with Exempla.

?Exempla is one of the most delightful clients we have had. They have just been tremendous in their cooperation with us and in helping to secure the appropriate physicians to build a strong medical office building to support their campus,? said Cindy Hughes, director of marketing and leasing for Lillibridge.

The pavilion is a strong companion facility to the hospital campus and a separate but balanced counterpart to the 230,000-square-foot Kaiser Permanente Rock Creek Medical Offices also on the campus.

?The CEO and the hospital have been great in educating the physicians who they are working jointly with community physicians as well as Kaiser. We still have a couple of larger users in discussions that could take the building up to 80 percent, so I am excited about some of the activity that we have right now,? said Patricia Wassick of Health Connect Properties, who is leasing offices on behalf of Lillibridge.

Stephanie Nickel of Health Connect said the rental rate in the pavilion is $27.25 per square foot, which includes about $5 per square foot for janitorial services, heat, electricity and real estate taxes of about $3.50 per square foot.

She said Lillibridge is offering a tenant finishing allowance of $30 per square foot for a five-year lease, $40 for a seven-year lease and $50 for a 10-year lease.

The most enthusiastic participants in the building?s evolution have been the physicians who are working there. Registered Nurse Carol Wittenberg has been managing her husband?s, Dr. Wayne Wittenberg, neurosurgery practice at the Community Physicians Pavilion since early October 2004, when they were the first tenants to move in.

?It has been wonderful,? she said of the experience. ?It is so modern and so clean. The rents are not prohibitive. No matter which window you look out, you have a view of this country?s expansiveness. Anytime you have a brand new building, there are things that need to be tweaked, but we make one phone call, and it is fixed. There?s this tremendous sense of community with all the new tenants going back and forth to see each other. These people understand customer service. Their goal is to take care of patients and to meet the needs of physicians and their staff so we have no worries.?

Volin, of Women?s Health Group, said the hospital was a determining factor in choosing the pavilion. ?It?s a state-of-the-art facility, and it has a lot of things going for it in terms of quality of care.?