New San Rafael Medical Clinic Breaks Ground This Week

Meridian Property Company, a full service real estate developer and owner of medical real estate, is pleased to announce that it will be holding a groundbreaking ceremony on June 4 for the construction of a new outpatient center in downtown San Rafael, Calif. 

Located in Marin County at 1415 Third Street in San Rafael, the approximately 10,500-square-foot state-of-the-art medical clinic will serve the residents that live in close proximity to downtown and provide them with convenient access to high quality medical care.

According to Meridian COO John Pollock, the groundbreaking celebration comes after overcoming many challenges including collaboration between stakeholders to purchase multiple parcels, selecting a site in a land-constrained setting, combining architectural styles, finding space for parking, and permit delays. "The development of the new medical clinic required the purchase of two properties; the property at 1415 Third Street, which formerly housed an office building that was demolished in April, and the other, 814 E. Street, a turn-of-the-century Victorian that will be reverted to a single-family home, from its current state as a triplex," said Pollock.  

Meridian partnered with architectural design firm San Francisco-based Carey & Co., Inc., specialists in restoration projects throughout the Bay Area, to restore the Victorian home. Once restoration of the Victorian is complete, Meridian will be able to reduce the combined parking requirements, create additional underground parking below the clinic, and enable the development of the outpatient center to proceed.

Harriman Kinyon of Walnut Creek, Calif., is the architect for the outpatient clinic. The design of the new clinic, in keeping with the historical nature of the downtown community, will complement its surroundings, blending the use of natural material, planters, trees and shrubs.

In March 2014, Meridian closed escrow on the purchase of a 69,000-square-foot medical office building in Sonoma County at 5900 State Farm Drive in Rohnert Park, Calif. and recently leased the entire second floor to Petaluma Health Center. In February 2014, Meridian sold a 8,400-square-foot freestanding building at its Sierra Pelona Medical Center campus in Palmdale, Calif., to Joshua Medical Group, a local family practice.  

Pollock believes the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has “paved the way to new models of care requiring providers to re-think their delivery of services in a lower reimbursement environment, and requires innovation from across the spectrum from population health management, to administration, physician alignment, and facility utilization” and feels Meridian’s outpatient community-centric urban infill facility provides “the kind of space required to deliver these new models of care in lower acuity settings with larger contiguous space, which will serve as hubs of care for the community."  While the general office vacancy remains at near 20% (according to Keegan & Coppin Company 1st Quarter 2014 report), there is little, if any, contiguous medical space available greater than 10,000 square feet. Pollock believes that when the new outpatient center in San Rafael is complete in early 2015, the space will be key in attracting larger providers in the area.