DEVELOPERS TO BREAK GROUND ON JOE DIMAGGIO MEDICAL OFFICE IN WELLINGTON

Developers Alan Benenson and Leon Ojalvo plan to break ground on Wellington Office Parc, a medical office complex, in February with Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital as the tenant. 

​

The hospital signed a long-term lease with the developers for the built-to-suit 32,000-square-foot building at 3315 South State Road 7 last year, on the border of Wellington and Lake Worth. They plan to close on a roughly $7 million construction loan soon, Ojalvo of Liberty Base Investments told The Real Deal.

​

It marks the hospital’s first location in Palm Beach County and the second branded Joe DiMaggio facility. It’s slated to open in March of next year.

​

Ojalvo said Lennar developed the Wellington Parc townhomes, a 92-unit community, behind the site and then sold the 3.5-acre plot to Benenson, of MAS Development, and Ojalvo for $1.4 million last summer. He declined to comment on terms of the lease and buildout costs. The project marks the first for Ojalvo, who has a background in finance. Benenson has more than 30 years of development experience, Ojalvo said.

​

The hospital is part of Memorial Healthcare System, and will offer specialized pediatric services, according to the Palm Beach Post. It’s part of a growing trend of hospitals branching out and building outpatient centers, like Baptist Health South Florida, Mount Sinai in Miami Beach and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

​

In late 2015, Nicklaus announced it was expanding to Aventura, where it opened a pediatric care center the following year. A new 122,000-square-foot Baptist outpatient and medical complex is under construction in Miami Beach, which is being developed by Crescent Heights, and Baptist has also proposed a 30,000-square-foot, $30 million medical office building in the Cornerstone Corporate Center in Plantation.