MD Anderson’s Growth Plans and New Hospital Expansions in West Houston Driving Real Estate Demand
MD Anderson’s New Facility and Additional Expansions of Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Houston Methodist West Hospital are Driving Real Estate Demand
Strong community growth in West Houston continues to drive new construction in The Energy Corridor. Activity is particularly strong in the healthcare sector, which includes large-scale projects by three of Houston’s leading medical institutions.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center just announced plans for a new $113.75 million outpatient diagnostic and treatment center in Central Park, a Wolff Companies development. This project follows a flurry of healthcare construction in the area, with Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Houston Methodist West Hospital recently initiating $50 million and $170 million expansions, respectively, to their four-year-old facilities. Once complete, these three institutions will have invested over $875 million in facilities along a three mile stretch of I-10 to serve the greater West Houston area.
“The continued growth of the West Houston Metro area and of these three elite medical institutions is creating significant trickle-down demand for new residential, senior-living and medical-related facilities that benefit from their strategic proximity to these major healthcare providers,” said David Hightower, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer of Wolff Companies. “As examples, there are two hotels and a multi-family development under construction now immediately adjacent to Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Houston Methodist West Hospital in Ten Oaks. Most of this new demand requires land to build custom facilities. But, land availability in West Houston is shrinking. This has led some institutions to make strategic acquisitions in West Houston in anticipation of future growth needs – such as MD Anderson’s purchase in Central Park in 2012.”
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has embarked on plans to develop and build a new $113.75 million outpatient diagnostic and treatment center in Central Park. Planned for groundbreaking in 2016 and an opening in 2018, the new 175,000 square feet facility will be MD Anderson’s first free-standing clinical building constructed outside Houston’s Texas Medical Center. The new center represents the first phase of a long-term plan by MD Anderson to develop facilities on its 34.5-acre campus in Central Park, located near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Dairy Ashford.
Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus recently announced a $50 million capital improvement plan to expand inpatient capacity, ambulatory capacity and supporting hospital infrastructure. The first phase of the project includes a $16 million, 18-bed expansion of the hospital’s acute care capacity, which includes an eight-bed isolation unit designed specifically for children with highly contagious infectious diseases. The acute care unit should be operational in October. Additional phase one work includes a new interventional radiology suite, design for future operating and acute care facilities, conversion of offices to clinic exam space and new office space.
Phase two, set for completion in 2017, will include the addition of 24 acute-care beds, four new operating rooms with expanded pre- and post-operative areas, additional critical-care beds and expanded clinics to support the OR expansion.
Since opening its $220 million facility next to Ten Oaks in 2011, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus quickly became one of the most active pediatric hospitals in the market. This most recent expansion follows on the heels of a $13.25 million investment to increase the size of the Emergency Center, add a Sports Medicine Program and open a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Houston Methodist also recently announced plans to add a new $170 million, six-story, 228,700-square-foot hospital tower next to its Texas Medical Center – West Campus facility that will include 80 beds, 10 operating rooms and more areas for imaging. One floor will be dedicated to provide expanded labor and delivery services. Additional funding will be used to construct a new structured parking facility. Construction is expected to begin in late 2015 and be completed in the first quarter of 2018, according to Wayne Voss, CEO of Houston Methodist West.
Voss told the Houston Business Journal that Houston Methodist West opened in 2010 with 336 employees. Since then, it has grown to employ over 1,400 people, built out all of its shell space and added an additional garage and medical office building. Citing West Houston’s continued explosive growth as the reason for accelerating expansion plans, Voss said the hospital’s service area will be as large as Pittsburgh and serve over 1 million people by 2025.
At Wolff Companies, we have a long-standing history of commitment to help stimulate quality development in West Houston, including our city’s world-class healthcare institutions. We currently have prime sites available in The Energy Corridor, offering strategic proximity to this growing concentration of medical facilities.
For more information about Wolff Companies, please visit www.wolffcompanies.com.
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT PROPERTIES:
David W. Hightower, CCIM, CRE
Executive Vice President
Phone: 713-626-8050
FOR ALL OTHER INQUIRIES:
Carolyn W. Dorros
Vice President
Phone: 713-626-8050