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From the Archives: March 1st, 2002
City OKs sale of 30 acres of NASA site to Kaiser- $300 million medical center plan
By John Adams
DOWNEY-The Downey City Council has approved a purchase and sales agreement between the City and Kaiser for the development of a new $300 million Kaiser medical center on 30-acres of the former Boeing/NASA industrial plant. The action was at Tuesday's regular City Council meeting. The new medical facility would include a 350-bed hospital, and employ 3,000 well-paid personnel, including doctors, nurses and technicians.
Darrell George
A staff report delivered by Darrell George, director of community and economic development for the City, noted that City staff has been engaged in negotiations with Kaiser Permanente for the development of a new medical center for some time. The talks have taken many turns due to changes in location, the complex nature of Kaiser's facility requirements and environmental approvals required for the proposed site. George summarized major terms and conditions which have been agreed to including:
* The site area will include approximately net 30-acres.
* Kaiser will construct approximately 1,000,000 square feet of medical center uses, including 650,000 square feet of hospital and 350,000 square feet of medical offices. At an appropriate time in the future, Kaiser intends to apply for entitlements to expand the medical center by up to 400,000 square feet.
$13 million for land
* City staff and Kaiser have negotiated a base land value of $10 per square foot. The sale of 30 acres to Kaiser would thus generate approximately $13 million in revenue to the NASA site reuse project.
* Kaiser will be responsible for any payment required by the General Services Administration (GSA) over the sale of Parcel 4, which has been preliminarily estimated by the GSA at $1.8 million. Kaiser will also be responsible for an appropriate share of public road construction costs. Should the City elect to construct a new multi-purpose conference center within the learning center complex and within reasonable proximity to the Kaiser medical center, Kaiser would make a $500,000 contribution toward its construction and pay a proportionate share of its operating expenses.
Contingencies
* Major contingencies include the successful acquisition of Parcels 1 and 2 of the former NASA plant from the federal government, successful approval of the required entitlements (specific plan and EIR), Water Board approval of the hospital use, and Kaiser approval of the environmental condition of the property. Assuming these contingencies can be worked through, staff anticipates that a development agreement can be brought before the Council by July 2002. The execution of that development agreement would allow construction of the first medical office building to begin by the first quarter of 2003.
3,000 high-paying jobs
In addition to the positive impact to the City by the payment by Kaiser of approximately $13 million for the land, Kaiser Permanente also plans to invest more than $300 million in the development of a state-of-the-art medical center, which will create approximately 3,000 high quality jobs. The new medical center will include 82 departments; 351 licensed beds including; 34 critical care beds; 18 LDRs; 49 NICU/ICN beds; 48 post partum beds; 20 pediatric beds; 182 medical/surgical beds; 13 operating rooms; an 88 bay Emergency Department; plus full ancillary, general, member and administrative services and outpatient subspecialty clinics.
The project is slated for completion by November 2007.
Councilman Keith McCarthy, noting the facility will be in his 1st District, asked Kaiser's representative how the Downey site was chosen. Greg Adams of Kaiser, responded that 30-acres was needed, and that the proximity to patient membership also worked in Downey's favor. And he also applauded the cooperation of Darrell George and City Manager Gerald Caton who he said worked tirelessly to make the agreement work.
Council comments
Councilman Kirk Cartozian said, "My compliments to Darrell and Jerry (Caton) for their efforts. This will be great for our community." Councilman Bob Winningham called it "exciting." McCarthy added he looked forward to working with Kaiser. Mayor Meredith Perkins said the $300 million investment made this the biggest project in the city. Councilman Richard Trejo welcomed Kaiser, noting the new medical facility will include an emergency room.
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