Denver-based NexCore Group, a national healthcare real estate (HRE) developer, and the physician partners of North Cypress Land Ventures are speaking out on the synergies and beneficial features of the new North Cypress Physician Office Building III (POB III) in Cypress, a northwest Houston suburb.
Ground was broken recently on the four-story, 110,374-square-foot medical office building (MOB) and, in just over a year, the multispecialty on-campus facility will open to the public. The MOB is a collaboration of NexCore and the group of physician investors who make up North Cypress Land Ventures POB LTD.
The project at 10425 Huffmeister Road, on the HCA Houston Healthcare North Cypress Campus, is not the first time the physician group has made an investment as owners. The same group developed the hospital itself in 2006.
Commenting on that long tradition of bringing sophisticated, patient-friendly healthcare to the community were members of the Board of Managers of the General Partnership, including Kim D. Keller, M.D. (CEO), David R. Mack, M.D., and Kumaran Sathyamoorthy, M.D. They lead the core group of doctors investing in, designing and delivering POB III, which will be the premier medical office building on the North Cypress campus.
During the recent groundbreaking celebration, the three physicians joined their colleagues in sharing their vision of a new opportunity to develop and own their own medical building, while further enhancing the efficient and excellent healthcare they bring to the region.
“Healthcare is moving toward having an ambulatory focus, payors are moving toward ambulatory elective surgery and doctors are moving that way as well. On the particular campus where we had discussed developing this building there wasn’t an ambulatory surgery center, and we thought this would be an ideal opportunity,” Dr. Mack said during the recent groundbreaking celebration.
“We want to provide our patients with a one-stop shop which hasn’t been available to them before,” he added. “The campus has nice office buildings but having one building where patients are familiar with seeing their doctor and also having their surgery – they become familiar with the parking and logistics of the building. Large campuses are often overwhelming for patients trying to determine what building to go to and where to park.”
Most importantly, Dr. Mack said the multispecialty facility – featuring such diverse services such as General Surgery; Urology; Bariatric Surgeon; Gastroenterology; Pulmonology; Nephrology; Family Practice; Ophthalmology; Orthopedics; Cardiology and Podiatry – creates an ideal win-win for both patients and staff due to its one-stop, convenient location.
“The new building creates efficiencies – we want to spend our time working and not traveling so if we can do all of our work in one place and not have to drive from place to place we see the same benefits as the patients,” he said.
Dr. Keller, the CEO of North Cypress Land Ventures, spoke to the physician group’s long history of collaboration.
“The group of physicians that will own and practice in POB III have been working together for anywhere from 10 to 30 years, so we have a good working relationship with each other and feel comfortable referring patients on the spot,” he noted.
Dr. Keller agreed with his colleagues that making the facility user friendly and easy to access is non-negotiable. “Our priority for new development is to increase patient satisfaction – if there’s a problem in the building, we address the issue and get it fixed right away.”
That extends to one of the most important elements to those who frequent a MOB: parking.
“The chief complaint of patients and physicians is the lack of parking on the existing campus,” he added, “so we designed the new building to alleviate the parking issue for both physicians and patients.”
Dr. Sathyamoorthy said the benefits of a physician-owned facility include the quality, pride and vested interest that comes along with ownership.
“A physician-owned facility keep physicians on campus and engaged with the facility. We’ve also worked with HCA extensively to offer potential outpatient services. As physician owners we can better control quality of care for our patients and the services offered to our patients” he said.
“I tell all my employees that being a physician is a service industry. Patients are seeking us out for our expertise, so they must be treated properly, they must come to a premier facility. And, to be able to provide consolidated services for our patients, whether surgical or non-surgical, POB III will provide outstanding and convenient quality of care that is controlled by the physicians,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy remarked.
NexCore Group Chief Development Officer and Managing Partner Todd Varney said the firm’s collaboration with the stakeholders in this development could serve as a model for future outpatient facilities. North Cypress POB III is a collaborative project in that NexCore Group is co-investing alongside physicians who will also be building tenants.
“NexCore has a great appreciation for the legacy of these physician-investors and tenants, and the outstanding reputation of the North Cypress Medical Center Hospital, which has a history of strong physician and corporate leadership,” Mr. Varney said.
The mutual respect is echoed by the physician team.
“Being able to design a new building and office space to work, to look at the flow, and working with the experts at NexCore has been an outstanding experience,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “Their strong track record in developing medical office buildings has made the experience very pleasant, with the least amount of hassle for all of our patients.”
The projected opening date for the facility is October 2021. Click here for a video about the project.