PrintThe largest public health clinic in Bernalillo County will be leaving its functionally obsolete building on UNM's North Campus, described over the years as a money pit for maintenance, for an insurance company's former back office near Carlisle and Interstate 40.
Bernalillo County recently purchased the 58,000-squarefoot, three-story building at 2400 Wellesley NE to house the Stanford Health Clinic, currently at 1111 Stanford NE. The Wellesley building has been empty since Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico vacated it in January 2007 as part of a consolidation to a new headquarters near Balloon Fiesta Park.
"The Wellesley property has all the components we needed," said Maggie Hart Stebbins, the county commissioner who represents the area. "Better access from public transportation, better parking and just a better space."
The Stanford clinic has for decades been at its 22,000-square-foot building, which is one of those onestory block buildings built in the pueblo style on the University of New Mexico campus in the 1950s. The innards of the building - heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical - are constantly in need of maintenance. Parking is limited, only 30 to 35 spaces.
The limitations of the building, owned by the county but built on university land, are hardly new. The county has been trying to scrape together funding for a new location for years.
"I have documents from previous regional directors that these discussions have been going on since 1986," said Margy Wienbar, regional director for public health who works in the building.
Although the county is obligated to provide space for the clinic, the clinic itself is a state health department operation. Health officials didn't want to stray too far from UNM for a new place.
"Since I've been here, we've looked at several buildings," said Julie Baca, deputy county manager for the past 5½ years. "Either the price wasn't right or the location wasn't really desirable."
County officials learned that the Wellesley building was available for purchase early last spring, Baca said. The Bernalillo County Commission approved the purchase in late August. The deal closed in early October.
The purchase had its complexities.
Originally part of the commercial real estate portfolio of Boise, Idahobased DBSI Inc., which filed Chapter 11 a year ago, the property cleared bankruptcy court before the purchase was finalized, said listing agent Karen Hudson of Maestas & Ward Commercial Real Estate. The county's purchase agreement then had to be approved by 17 individual investors who, together, owned it, she said.
"Karen bent over backwards to make it happen," Baca said about Hudson's role in the deal.
The Wellesley building had been marketed at $4 million, but the county bought it for $3.3 million.
The county was never able to secure federal funds for a new clinic, so it used $1 million in 2008 general obligation bond money and $2.3 million in revenue from the county health care gross receipts tax, Baca said.
Approximately 80 employees are based at the Stanford Health Clinic, which offers a supplemental food program for women, infants and children, better known as WIC; immunizations; family planning and pregnancy testing; infectious disease management; HIV/AIDS counseling and testing; and services related to drug addiction. The clinic sees 1,000-plus people a month, Wienbar said.
The clinic also houses the regional health office for a six-county area. While operations in the existing building are cramped, Wienbar said employees really don't seem to mind.
"They've worked in the building for a long time," she said. "They've learned to work around space issues, make things work to the best of their abilities."
The clinic will occupy about 30,000 square feet in the Wellesley building. The balance of the building's usable space will be leased to La Familia, a nonprofit social service agency currently occupying about 22,000 square feet at 707 Broadway NE.
La Familia's services include Medicaid-funded treatment foster care, which is for children with severe emotional trauma, and adoption services. The agency really doesn't need more space, but better laidout space that would include a training room with seating for 120 people, said president and CEO Beverly Nomberg.
Planning is currently under way on what tenant improvements will be needed in the building, with employees from both the Stanford clinic and La Familia participating. "They appreciate having input in what will be a client-oriented building," Wienbar said.
Relocations to the Wellesley building are expected to happen gradually, wrapping up in the next 18-24 months, Baca said.
Finding a new footing
The father-son physician team of Mark and Zach Haas plan to move their practice, Albuquerque Associated Podiatrists, from its home of 44 years near Presbyterian Hospital to a vacant medical office building near Academy and Wyoming NE.
"It was somewhat of an emotional decision," said Mark Haas about leaving their 2,200-square-foot office at 121 Sycamore NE. "My grandfather and father built this building. My father, who was also a podiatrist, practiced here for years."
Nostalgia aside, the Sycamore building is already too small for the foot-andankle practice and its 11 employees. There's also no room to add to the building. With plans in the works to hire a third podiatrist and 2 to 3 more employees, a move was inevitable.
The Haases have leased 6,000 square feet at 8080 Academy NE across from Albuquerque Academy, where Zach Haas was a standout football player. The 12,941-square-foot building was occupied by ABQ Health Partners (former Lovelace Medical Group) until spring 2008, when it was listed with Keith Bandoni of Maestas & Ward at an asking price of $3 million.
Haas said he was interested in buying the building but was beaten to the punch by two other local investors who were represented by attorney Josh Skarsgard. A friend of Zach Haas since boyhood, Skarsgard then worked with the Haases to get them into the building.
The move from Albuquerque's health care hub to the Northeast Heights will not be as dramatic as it might seem, Mark Haas said. "To our surprise, when we looked at the patients we've seen over the past three years and their zip codes, it was closer for 60 percent of our patients," he said.
The move is planned around the end of January or early February.
Richard Metcalf covers commercial real estate for the Journal. You may reach him at 823-3972 or rmetcalf@abqjournal.com
