NexCore Starts Work in Spokane

Residents of Spokane’s fast-growing North Side will soon have expanded healthcare services thanks to Holy Family Hospital, Providence Health and Services, several local physician practices and Denver-based NexCore Group. Construction started June 28 for a new facility that will bring more than 100,000 square feet of new and renovated outpatient and medical office space to the Holy Family campus.
 
The project is the culmination of a two-phase program initiated seven years ago, according to Cathy Simchuk, Holy Family’s Vice President of Clinical and Facility Operations. The hospital is part of the not-for-profit Providence Health and Services system.
 
“Holy Family has seen dramatic growth in the proportion of healthcare services that are being delivered in an outpatient setting,” Ms. Simchuk says. “Our outpatient volume is growing at a faster rate than our inpatient volume.”  The $28 million first phase of that plan, completed in 2003, included a new emergency center; a consolidated, expanded imaging center, in conjunction with Inland Imaging, LLC; renovation of the hospital’s entries, lobby, corridors and wayfinding system; and other facility improvements.
 
Holy Family officials knew the second phase would need to provide an expansion of its outpatient surgery unit, as well as new, on-campus medical office space, Ms. Simchuk says. A lack of available outpatient and medical office space was making it increasingly difficult for the hospital to serve the fast-growing North Side market, she says.
 
Fortunately, the new 107,000 square foot project will solve those capacity problems. It will include a four-story, 65,800 square foot (gross) medical office component atop 33,200 square feet of expanded outpatient space, plus an 8,550 square foot renovation of existing hospital space. A new, 300-space surface parking lot will also be constructed. The medical office building is being financed and developed by NexCore.
 
“This project is the culmination of work that was started many years ago to gather all the outpatient services at the north end of the hospital,” says Tim Oliver, NexCore’s Senior Vice President, Healthcare Development. “It provides greater convenience for patients, physicians and staff, as well as a wider spectrum of community-based services for the residents of Spokane’s North Side.”
 
“This is the first new, modern medical office building that’s been constructed in north Spokane on a hospital campus,” says Jarrod Daddis, NexCore’s Senior Vice President Development & Operations. “This facility will support an integrated approach to healthcare that will provide better access to medical services for patients, modern facilities for physicians and operational efficiencies for the hospital.”
 
Three major tenants have already signed leases for the new Holy Family medical office space: Heart Clinics Northwest, Inland Vascular Institute and Northwest Orthopaedic Specialists. Talks are also underway with several other prospective tenants, but some space is still available in the new Holy Family medical office building.