C.W. Driver begins construction on medical office building

C.W. Driver, a Southern California general contracting and construction firm, has broken ground on Palomar Health’s new $4.5 million satellite clinic, the Ramona Ambulatory Care Center.

Designed by San Diego-based Mascari Warner Architects, the 7,600-square-foot, single-story outpatient medical clinic built on approximately an acre of land will expand the healthcare services for the Ramona community.

The clinic will provide adult and pediatric primary care physician services, urgent care, radiology services, and outpatient diagnostic testing as well as specialty services and programs, such as health education and prevention classes and a mobile mammography unit.

Located in a high-traffic area on the corner of 13th and Main streets, the new clinic, which will be co-owned by Palomar Health and developer Pacific Medical Buildings, will have Arch Health Partners, an affiliated physician organization of Palomar Health, as its exclusive tenant when construction is complete in January 2013.

“We look forward to completing construction on time to serve the healthcare needs of the Ramona community,” said Richard Freeark, vice president of operations for C.W. Driver in San Diego. “Our work will continue to be completed with careful consideration for the operating facilities nearby as well as ensure proper traffic control for the surrounding area.”

The new urgent care center, which will be across 13th Street from the C.W. Driver-built Ramona Library and the future Ramona Intergenerational Community Campus, will feature a cement plaster exterior along with high ceilings that include the use of exposed beams in the building’s lobby. With a total of three acres available near the clinic’s site, Palomar Health officials say they have the room for future expansion.

“We’re very excited that construction has begun on the Ramona Ambulatory Care Center and that the site offers room for expansion,” said Michael Shanahan, director of Palomar Health facilities planning. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide an additional array of services to the Ramona community and hope this facility will continue to be used and grow.”

Ramona Ambulatory Care Center joins a number of C.W. Driver-built medical office buildings including the 75,000-square-foot east campus office building on the University of California, San Diego campus, which opened in the fall of 2011, and tenant improvement work for an existing 15,500-square-foot medical office building for Kaiser Permanente in Indio, Calif.