NGKF Global Healthcare managing director Garth Hogan (who’s based in OC, but snapped returning home from St. Louis, where one of his largest clients, Ascension Health, is HQ'd) tells us that the drive to develop ambulatory care projects throughout the country is strong, but there’s a special twist in California. Here, OSHPOD earthquake requirements make it very costly to build in-patient facilities, so hospitals are moving many of their services out of the hospital and into medical office buildings, Garth says.

Recently Newport Beach-based NCA Real Estate tapped NGKF Global Healthcare Services to pre-lease the 110k SF MOB it plans to develop across from the main entrance to St Joseph’s-Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. The new four-story building, with a five-story parking structure, will be designed for larger scale physician groups, a growing trend under the Affordable Care Act. Besides being near a nationally ranked hospital, Garth adds, the project also has the advantage of proximity to the Shops at Mission Viejo. (A little surgery, a little shopping.) Along with Garth, colleagues John Scruggs and Ryan Clark will rep the developer in the pre-leasing.