Hospital takes another step toward completion

MEDIA DISTRICT — Right now it's just a big mound of dirt across the street from the hospital's main lobby. But by this time next year, the lumbering tractors and cranes at St. Joseph's Medical Center are scheduled to be replaced by the second in a set of three buildings to begin serving as office space, an outpatient surgery center, cancer center and breast health center.

Hospital officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday for the second of the three buildings, which will house a surgery center and doctor's offices.

"We're expanding on the services we are bringing to the community," said Brian Greene, service area director of marketing and public relations for the hospital.

The three-building medical center, which will also include a five-level parking structure, will be called the Burbank Medical Plaza, he said.

The plaza is slated to cost more than $60 million, Greene said, but most of the cost won't be coming out of St. Joseph's pocket.

Pacific Medical Buildings, a large, San Diego-based medical building landlord and developer, has leased the land on St. Joseph's site from the hospital.

The company has already built a 72,000-square-foot, four-story breast health and diagnostic center with physicians' offices in the plaza space.

The groundbreaking Tuesday was for the 97,500-square-foot, four-story building, which will also be under Pacific Medical Buildings' management.

Lakeside Medical Associates, a medical group that partners with St. Joseph Medical Center, will lease part of that building from Pacific Medical Buildings and run a surgery center on the first floor and have offices on part of the second floor.

They will cater to patients with issues that range from the common cold to more serious medical problems, said Kerry Weiner, president of Lakeside Medical Associates Inc.

"It will have the full spectrum of primary care," Weiner said.

"Plus, another section with multi-specialist care."

The second floor will house 15 to 17 doctor's offices for physicians who work with both St. Josephs Medical Center and Lakeside Medical Associates.

The third building will be a 55,000-square-foot, four-story cancer center, which is scheduled to break ground in September with completion of the project estimated at a year after the start date, Greene said.

The cancer center will be a part of St. Joseph Medical Center, unlike the other two buildings in the medical plaza.

Cancer services at the hospital are currently spread out in a way that sometimes has patients going from one side of the hospital to another in the same day to visit different specialists, Greene said.

"The services are kind of dispersed throughout the hospital," he said.

"We are going to have everything in one place in the cancer center."

A majority of the cancer center's construction costs have been collected through donations, which now total approximately $33 million, Weiner said.

The cancer center will be named after Roy and Patricia Disney for their $10 million endowment to its construction cost.

Office space is expected to double for the hospital when the two buildings are completed by September 2008, Greene said.