by Garth Meyer
Three “strong options” are on the table for the next chapter of the Beach Cities Health District campus.
Each will be studied in a work session by the BCHD board this week, followed by a broader public discussion of the proposals Oct. 31.
The board sought interest in August for the old Redondo Beach hospital building and its ground-level parking lot to the north.
The three finalists, out of eight submissions, propose long-term care for the elderly. Two of the finalists also propose adding a new medical office building to the BCHD campus. All three of the applicants would tear down the former hospital building.
An advisory working group, which included BCHD Boardmember Martha Koo, narrowed down the submissions. The board will rank the three finalists at its November meeting.
“Our goal is to develop a plan that honors BCHD’s mission, ensures long-term sustainability, and reflects the ideas and values shared by our community,” said Tom Bakaly, the Health District’s chief executive. “All while creating sustainable revenue to support BCHD services, and to address the seismic safety of the (old hospital) building.”
“The key point is, we’ve been talking for a long time about continuum of care for older adults to (stay in and) age in the community,” he said.
Previously, there was speculation that affordable housing would be built on the campus.
“We did not receive proposals for that,” Bakaly said, though one submission was to turn the land into regular residential housing. “That is not consistent with our mission,”said Bakaly.
The three finalists each suggested a long-term land lease, all in the range of $1.2 million per year.
“The revenue is in line with what we’ve been projecting,” Bakaly said, “while meeting the health needs of the community, being sensitive to neighbors, and helping fund our programs.”
BCHD has stated their goal is to vacate the former hospital by March 2027.
Its parking structure will remain.
The proposal from MarVentures/Continental Development includes a stage for productions, such as Shakespeare by the Sea.
“Studies have shown there is a direct nexus between arts and health,” Bakaly said.
The potential new medical office building would be either 10,000 or 30,000 square feet. The old hospital is 150,000.
The new proposals cover 4.5 to 5 acres of the campus.
“I think a big part of the discussion is going to be community benefit,” Bakaly said.
Originally, PMB developers of Solana Beach, Calif., was going to build a large assisted living facility along the north edge of the campus, to include a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), and the BCHD Center for Health and Fitness was going to move off-campus while the hospital was torn down. The Center would later return to the campus in a new building.
The popular Center for Health and Fitness gym will instead move from its present location in the former hospital building to the top floor of the adjacent 510 building. The main floor of the 510 has subsequently been leased to a non-denominational PACE run by Los Angeles Jewish Health.
“We’re really pleased with the interest we’ve received, and pleased to implement other components in existing buildings,” Bakaly said.
The three finalists are MarVentures/Continental Development (El Segundo), NexCore (Denver) and Sunrise Senior Living (Oakton, Virginia). ER
Martha Koo had 6 clandestine meetings on this project and not one word has been provided to the surrounding neighbors. The property within 1/2-mile has suffered a $200M value loss. This 65-foot tall, 100% commercial development could drop values by $100M or more. BCHD has refused to provide the surrounding neighborhoods with any information since BCHD lost $12M of our taxpayer funding to pre-development costs, with no recovery from PMB LLC, the prior bidder. BCHD has no development experience and so far, just wastes our tax funds trying to lease 100% PUBLIC land to PRIVATE developers for up to 100 years.
BCHD could save $1M a year in costs by cutting down its $3M per year in executives. Why does a $15M a year operation, funded by taxpayers, need $3M in executives? For what? Each executive only has a $1M budget on average, and they suck up 20%-30% of it paying themselves. That’s crazy.
Make the medical facility 30,000 square feet or bigger. It needs more than 1000 units of senior housing.