Is there a doctor in the room? There will be soon. San Ramon-based Meridian Property Co just bought a 69k SF medical office building in Sonoma County at 5900 State Farm Dr in Rohnert Park, and about half the space is up for grabs. Above, Meridian COO John Pollock and his wife Susan on vacation duty in December at the Mango Deck in Cabo. He's got plans to upgrade the lobby and fill the top recently vacated floor with a medical user with a larger square footage requirement of 35k SF or up to four users needing about 7,500 SF each.

Kaiser Permanente is the sole tenant, having occupied the first-floor space since 2003. The price of the building, built in 1973 on almost five acres, was undisclosed. The seller was a partnership between local developer PB&J Acquisitions of Petaluma and an institutional investor who acquired the building back in 2012 as part of a 14-building portfolio. Mike Thomason of Keegan & Coppin Co of Petaluma repped the buyer and seller. John tells us Meridian is actively pursuing more opportunities throughout the Bay Area that will meet the needs of medical providers as they look to expand their footprints and gain market share.

John, here again with the wifey at a wedding last fall in Tulare, gave us a three-pronged explanation for why healthcare demand in the Sonoma area is on the rise this year. One is the recent opening of Graton Casino and forecasted creation of thousands of new jobs related to its operations.
 The planned redevelopment of the former State Farm campus into a mixed-use project will provide housing and create additional jobs, he says. What's more, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and expansion of Medi-Cal will create a higher demand for primary care services, he says.