Category: News

When Houchin Community Blood Bank opened its doors in Bolthouse Properties’ Seven Oaks Business Park three years ago, it was the start of many medical and health-related projects moving to this desirable Bakersfield location.

Houchin and the other companies that have followed reflect the increasing demand for medical services in southwest Bakersfield and the related job creation that is bolstering the region’s economy.

When Bolthouse Properties unveiled its plans for a massive 276-acre master planned commercial development along Buena Vista Road, south of White Lane, one of the first services was Houchin.

“Bolthouse actually donated five acres to us to help,” recalled Greg Gallion, Houchin’s president and CEO, who explained the nonprofit organization had been searching for a way to expand and bring its operations under one roof. Learning of Houchin’s need, Bolthouse Properties executives offered to donate property in its new business park.

Houchin’s mission is to encourage people to donate lifesaving blood products as a way of giving back to their community. Bolthouse Properties wanted to give back in the same way, Gallion said.

“A prime attraction for the medical community is that Bolthouse Properties offers doctors and medical services the chance to purchase property within the park,” said Davis. “That is highly desirable for the medical industry.”

That model has proven to be an enticing draw. Following Houchin’s opening, DaVita Dialysis moved to the Seven Oaks Business Park. And the Seven Oaks Assisted Living and Memory Care complex opened its doors last year. Work is nearing completion on the Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Kern County’s new offices and service center, which includes adult day care, within the complex.

Recently winning a Bakersfield Beautiful Award for architecture/design is Hoffmann Hospice’s 25,000-square-foot inpatient hospice home that opened last year in the Seven Oaks Business Park. Compassionately designed by Matrix Architects and built by Klassen Corp. to meet the special needs of hospice patients and their families, Hoffmann’s project includes such amenities as a theater room, library, family lounges, dining parlor and chapel graced with a stained glass masterpiece.

Completed last month is the state-of-the-art New Horizon Surgical Center in Seven Oaks Business Park. The 13,000-square-foot facility designed and built by Bolthouse is scheduled to open later this summer.

“The market just leans towards the medical industry right now,” said Davis, noting that the high demand for medical services has been a factor in fueling stable and consistent growth at the park.

“The healthcare industry continues to grow dramatically,” said Richard Chapman, president and CEO of the Kern Economic Development Corp. He noted Bakersfield continues to build on a solid medical infrastructure, which began because hospitals and physicians wanted to be able to treat people locally and keep patients from having to travel to Los Angeles or San Francisco for care.

“We are expecting that 85 percent of California’s future growth will be in the San Joaquin Valley,” Chapman said. “That’s due to build-out from urban areas. People are moving out of big cities and closer to us. So, in addition to aging baby boomers and normal population growth, we’ve got that influx of people.”

Bolthouse Properties’ Seven Oaks Business Park also includes many prominent businesses, including the headquarters for the Kern Schools Federal Credit Union, the western regional headquarters of Seneca Resources, and a recently completed office building, which will include the new headquarters for Bolthouse Properties. Also opening this year is the 14,000-square-foot headquarters for Northern Digital Inc., a firm of control systems engineers and consultants for the petrochemical and water waste industry.

These projects have created the synergism and economic energy that is supporting the growth of Bakersfield’s newest and innovative “medical hub.”

“When development of Seven Oaks Business Park started, it was formulated to garner several key industries,” said Bruce Davis, Bolthouse Properties vice president of development. “Our master plan is much like a residential one. Our planned commercial development protects property values and promotes aesthetics, workability and livability. Development also is compatible with the many adjacent homes.”

Also adjacent to Seven Oaks Business Park are retail stores and restaurants in the Grand Island Village and Mustang Square to support the park’s business occupants and the surrounding residential areas. Bolthouse Properties will soon be adding additional retail stores and restaurants to Seven Oaks Business Park along Buena Vista Road.
Davis said Bolthouse Properties is taking a long-term approach to the development of its Seven Oaks Business Park.

“We’re not in a rush. We’re doing this in a very orderly fashion,” he said. “This is a project involving over a million square feet of commercial space. And we are very excited about it.”

Laura Wiener is the owner of Spectrum Communications in Bakersfield.

Few industries have the stability that the medical industry enjoys. There is always a need for nurses, for doctors, for clinics and hospitals; and as large generations age, the need increases.

 Locally, that certainly is the case. Baby Boomers have reached the age when going to the doctor is more frequent, as is the need for specialized tests and procedures. And soon, the huge slew of Millennials in our area will be requiring that much more from the medical community.

So what happens to physician practices and medical facilities when they need to expand to meet that need? They have to relocate. And sometimes that requires new developments in growing parts of town.

While few developers in our area actually build medical-only complexes, it seems like as soon as a lot is available, even in a large retail market, inevitably a medically-related company will jump at the chance for a new or improved location.

When Bolthouse Properties unveiled their plans for a massive 276-acre retail development, Seven Oaks Business Park, a few years ago, one of the first planned tenants was Houchin Community Blood Bank. That’s because, as Greg Gallion, CEO of Houchin, explained, “Bolthouse actually donated five acres to us to help. We’d been looking for many years for the opportunity to expand in a way that would help us serve the community and grow.” Not just relocate for the sake of relocating.

“We had four different locations in Bakersfield,” Gallion said. “A G Street location, one on H Street, and two on Truxtun. So we wanted a place to better house our entire operation under one roof.”

It turns out, the President of Bolthouse Properties, Anthony Leggio, and Senior VP of Development Stephan DeBranch, both heard about Houchin’s mission.

“And it seemed like in the spirit of our mission of donating and giving back to the community, they wanted to do the same, and that’s why they donated the land to the community blood bank,” Gallion added. And that land happened to be in Seven Oaks Business Park.

“We were the first location in Seven Oaks Business Park,” Gallion explained. “We broke ground literally and figuratively.”

Since then, the development has grown to include many other retailers, including Kern Schools Federal Credit Union and Seneca Resources. But what is surprising, or maybe not to those in the know, is the number of medical facilities. Hoffmann Hospice opened up a huge complex to house their growing operation, the Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Kern County just broke ground on their new facility, which is much larger, and will allow them to better serve the increased demand for Alzheimer’s care in Kern. They were at capacity for years!

DaVita Dialysis also moved in.

That’s four facilities. And it’s only phase one of this development.

According to Bruce Davis, Bolthouse Properties VP of Development, it naturally wasn’t something they set out to do.

“When the development started out, it was formulated to garner several key tenants. It just so happens that many have a medical basis,” he said.

“And in fact, just adjacent to Kern Schools Federal Credit Union, a new surgery center is under construction. The market just leans towards the medical industry right now; there tends to be less fluctuations.”

People always need healthcare, and now, Davis said, with the Affordable Healthcare Act, more people are able to seek treatment, which means there are more people out there seeing doctors, and having tests done.

According to Kern Economic Development Corporation (KEDC) President and CEO Richard Chapman, “When you look at future jobs in demand, a majority are healthcare related. It’s the fastest growing job sector in the future.”

Chapman explained that the KEDC looks at the growth rate for jobs in Kern each year and when it comes to the medical industry, in 2014, there were roughly 23,000 medically-related jobs held. “It grows every year,” Chapman said. “It increases about three to five percent each year. It’s a steady grower, in terms of economic strength.”

Chapman added that the last decade has seen our community continue to build on a solid medical infrastructure. Which really began because hospitals and physicians wanted to be able to treat people locally and keep those patients from having to travel to L.A. or San Francisco. So by offering more services and treatment options, more people are seeking help here. And we need offices and facilities that can accommodate those patients. But growth is also projected on a larger scale.

According to the Employment Development Department for the State of California, “Industry employment, which includes self-employment, unpaid family workers, private household workers, farm, and nonfarm employment in Kern County, is expected to reach 371,900 by 2022, an increase of 14.7 percent over the 10-year projections period.”

And amazingly, “Twenty-four percent of the fastest growing occupations are in the healthcare field. Occupations range from home health aides that require a high school diploma or less, to medical and health services managers that require a bachelor’s degree.”

Chapman added that projections for 2022 are just as impressive when it comes to the local medical industry job market.

The EDD’s list of fastest growing jobs in Kern include: Medical Assistants, Personal Care Aides, Home Health Aides, Dental Hygienists, Phlebotomists, Medical Records Technologists, Medical Secretaries, Lab Technicians, Rehabilitation Counselors, and Nursing Assistants. And each of them are expected to grow over 30 percent (some over 40!) in the next five years.

Just in the last year, the number of physician assistant jobs was up 7 percent. Nurse practitioners up 6.5 percent. And similar growth was seen in jobs for diagnostic medical sonographers.

“The healthcare industry continues to grow dramatically,” Chapman said. “And we are expecting that eighty-five percent of future growth will be in the San Joaquin Valley. That’s due to build-out from urban areas. People are moving out of big cities and closer to us, so in addition to aging Baby Boomers and normal population growth, we’ve got that influx of people, too.”

So when space is available, medical companies and offices will jump on it.

“I think for the medical community, something that makes property like this so prime is that Bolthouse offers tenants the chance to purchase the property,” Davis explained. “And that’s a high desire in the medical industry.”

Also, the location of the Seven Oaks Business Park, on Panama, is prime real estate. With so many home developments in close proximity, it’s convenient for people.

“Our Master Plan with Seven Oaks Business Park,” Davis explained, “is much like a residential one. It’s a community for commercial use. What that does is protect value and aesthetics, workability, liveability, and this development is obviously adjacent to many homes.

From small to large (there are 50-acre plots available), retailers are showing interest.

“And we’re hopeful we can draw large anchors to the area,” Davis said. “The largest and most iconic in the development is the Kern Schools Federal Credit Union corporate building. But we have a variety.”

It’s going to take a long time for the development to be finished. “We’re not in a rush. We’re doing this in a very orderly fashion…this is several hundred thousand square feet. And we’re excited about it.”

And they should be. These types of developments are good for our community, not just for the tenants.

And Gallion at Houchin agrees.

“The building is working out wonderfully. All of our staff and operations can be under one roof; one location. Because it’s large enough, we have been able to do more introductions to the general public in terms of tours of the facility. To show them how their blood is being managed. It’s been a real asset because it allows people to get the full picture and they can see just how important it is to donate blood, plasma, and platelets.”

Ultimately, Gallion said that because the location is a distance away yet (because growth is still happening toward the direction of Seven Oaks Business Park), they aren’t seeing the numbers as high as they’d like now that they have the room. “It’s still a ways out for some people,” he said. (Also sadly, because of the new Westside Parkway development, traffic is being routed away from Houchin’s draw station still located on Truxtun Extension and fewer people are donating because it’s out of sight, out of mind.)

Gallion said he’s not surprised that there are more medical facilities staking claims to locations in the Business Park.

“I think it reflects the growth and direction Bakersfield and Kern have been headed in for some time,” he said.

As for Houchin, the new facility has allowed them some space and time to focus on evolving to meet the needs of the community.

But really, Houchin’s new location allows them to focus on this side of the organization, instead of space, like they were in years past. So while things are usually critical for Houchin, Gallion is hopeful that as growth continues in that part of town, more people will remember to donate lifesaving blood products.

“Everyone who’s lived in Bakersfield for a long time has seen a lot of that ag land and outlying areas converted to urban development for offices and medical facilities and other developments. It’s urban sprawl to a degree, but it’s also just human nature.”

And as humans, we’ll always need someone around to treat diseases and fix broken bones. So no matter where we see fit to plant our flag and develop land, chances are, we’ll need doctors and medical facilities to set up shop there.

Head south on Buena Vista Road from Stockdale Highway and expect many pleasant, fresh surprises popping up along the corridor.

At Ming Avenue and Buena Vista Road, the Tuscan designed Grand Island Village is now fully leased. Home to many local businesses — dining selections include the popular Wiki’s Wine Dive & Grill, and the soon-to-open Sol Y Luna, featuring delicious authentic Mexican cuisine and a beautiful outdoor seating area complete with the soothing sound of a rich and elegant imported water feature.

Recently opened Opulent Salon di Belezza is now accepting new clients. The nearly 4,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art day spa features 44 service providers, including stylists, aestheticians, a massage therapist, and nail care professionals offering a most relaxing experience for both men and women. “We can’t say enough about how delighted we are to have selected this Seven Oaks neighborhood as Opulent’s home. The incredible location and the careful attention to detail at Grand Island Village have most certainly contributed to the new clientele we see daily,” according to Julia Smith, Co-Owner of the spa.

Next door, the Beautologie Southwest Medspa will open in October, 2015. Milan R. Shah, MD, a specialist in aesthetic and laser medicine, and the Medspa’s medical director, explains that “all procedures will be medical grade — administered by physician supervised RNs and NPs. The group will offer all non-invasive cosmetic procedures, including laser, injections, fillers, chemical peels and more. Our patrons can look forward to premium membership programs for non-surgical enhancements in the nearly 2,000-square-foot facility with six patient rooms,” Shah added.

For fitness, In-Shape gym has arrived at Seven Oaks with a 30,000 square foot “crown jewel.” Located directly west of the Valley Republic branch at Ming and Buena Vista, In-Shape’s newest Diamond Level Health Club offers a resort-like outdoor pool area, complete with saunas and cabanas. The newly opened club offers cycling classes, yoga and group exercise studios, a training zone, and one of our city’s most grand and entertaining of kids clubs.

Completing the center this fall will be Runaway Gypsy Boutique, featuring high-end women’s apparel, a State Farm insurance agency and Magic Real Estate offering residential and commercial services.

Further south at White Lane and Buena Vista Road, adjacent to Stockdale High School, is Mustang Square. “Bolthouse Properties has done an incredible job developing the southwest/Seven Oaks commercial and retail area. We’ve found our move here to be one of the smartest business decisions we’ve made,” said Jim Baily, owner of Broken Yolk Restaurant. Of the 16 Broken Yolk restaurant franchises in Southern California, Baily’s new location broke all records for a grand opening month of sales this past April.

Coming soon to the center is Dr. Chen’s Premier Family Health Care, and preleasing has begun for the next phase which will be available in early 2016. This retail center is well located near the current residential areas of Seven Oaks, Belcourt at Seven Oaks and the expanding Seven Oaks Business Park.

“The quality of the businesses and retail tenants being attracted to the Seven Oaks/Buena Vista corridor will ensure that a tradition of excellence remains here for generations to come,” said Bruce Davis, Vice President of Bolthouse Properties.

Reprint from the Kern Business Journal, August, 2015
For more information on the Seven Oaks retail, please visit:
http://issuu.com/bakersfieldlifemagazine/docs/august_2015_kern_business_journalRetail

Woodbridge Pacific Group (WPG) of Bakersfield breaks ground today at Belcourt in Seven Oaks. Marking the next step for its master-planned development, WPG says Belcourt will bring an innovative, “first of its kind” residential environment to Bakersfield.

“Belcourt builds on the foundation of quality established for Seven Oaks by Castle and Cooke, and is being shaped by the clearly expressed preferences of local residents who participated in our focus group research,” said WPG President Todd Cunningham. “They want to live close to retail and dining, to their workplaces, leisure choices and community activities—and this is what Belcourt will provide, in a shaded, lushly landscaped setting with a community recreation center, trails, park, public art and much more.”

Belcourt encompasses approximately 175 acres in Seven Oaks. WPG purchased the land in 2013 from Bolthouse Properties, which joined WPG at today’s groundbreaking. Bolthouse President Tony Leggio said the resident-inspired vision for the next phase of Seven Oaks reflects WPG’s commitment to Bakersfield.

“WPG’s ties to Bakersfield and its track record of high quality residential development will be a positive addition to Seven Oaks and will lead to the success we see for Belcourt,” said Leggio. “We believe Belcourt will make a unique contribution to Seven Oaks and to southwest Bakersfield, and we are delighted to see it progressing to reality.”

Reducing the need to drive is key to Belcourt’s land use plan. WPG Partner Carl Neuss noted the connectivity of internal amenities and proximity to external destinations, which include the Seven Oaks Business Park and a 10-acre retail/commercial center owned and being developed by Bolthouse.

“Without having to drive, Belcourt residents can easily reach a core business center and desirable retail and dining opportunities, and just as easily traverse their village to enjoy its beauty, access its amenities and connect with friends and neighbors,” Neuss said. “We believe a close-knit, family-focused place like Bakersfield will embrace these concepts, and we are eager to bring Belcourt to Seven Oaks.”

Enriched by shade trees and seating areas, Belcourt’s network of pathways, sidewalks and trails will create an inviting setting for residents to enjoy on foot or by bike. Traffic circles, cul-de-sac streets and a paseo will further de-emphasize the car. Focal elements will include the lake-framed grand entry, a bell tower, a community park with turf amphitheater and a sculpture garden.

“Belcourt’s emphasis on alternatives to driving and on a host of discovery points experienced on foot truly puts people first,” said Senior Project Manager Jeff Eittreim. “And with key amenities established in conjunction with the first new homes, residents can enjoy their new lifestyle immediately.”

WPG now moves to start construction on the first homes it will build here, and to select the guest builders who will be participating with WPG in Belcourt’s development. WPG expects to open the Belcourt Welcome Center in early 2015, where interested home shoppers can learn more about planned residential neighborhoods within Belcourt.

All homes will be detached and designed for varied households that WPG expects will include families, empty nesters and active seniors. The Model Home Grand Opening and home sales are slated for early summer 2015.

A privately held, selective developer/homebuilder with an excellent track record, Woodbridge Pacific Group is committed to architecturally distinctive homes in premier locations. Jeff Eittreim heads its Bakersfield office at 1518 Mill Rock Way in Bakersfield.

INPATIENT HOSPICE CARE: Hoffmann Hospice will break ground April 9 on an 18-bed residential facility in the Seven Oaks Business Park near Buena Vista and Bolthouse drives in Bakersfield.

The 25,000-square-foot residential, three-wing Hoffmann Hospice Home is tentatively scheduled for completion in the spring of 2015.

“We had identified a gap of patients who were appropriate for hospice but becurse of the level of care they required, the families had no place to take them,” said Director of Development and Marketing Gretchen Daughtery.

Some observers applaud the effort to build Bakersfield’s first inpatient hospice, but others aren’t sure it’s such a good idea.

Eight hospice agencies serve Kern County, and they’re divided on the wisdom of helping patients in a dedicated hospice facility rather than at home or in hospitals, nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities.

“It is our leadership’s belief that partnering with the excellent facilities that are already present in our community is the best use of resources and will ultimately improve the level of care by allowing patients to remain in one location rather than transferring to a new location at their most fragile state only to die,” said Todd Jeffries, Director of Community Relations for Optimal Hospice Care, which has locations in Bakersfield and seven other cities statewide.

The new Hoffmann Hospice Home will provide 24-hour supervision with a ratio of four to five patients per registered nurse, as well as spiritual counsel, aides, volunteers and a physician medical director, Daughtery said.

The hospice anticipates the home will cost $8.7 million to build. It has already raised $2 million through private donations, and a campaign is ongoing to raise another $2 million and finance the rest, Daughtery said.

Hoffmann Hospice has served 18,735 terminally ill patients since its founding in 1995, generally in patients’ homes. The agency has 145 employees in Bakersfield, Antelope Valley and Kern River Valley.

Seven Oaks residents are getting older, but don’t expect any Lawrence Welk tunes, Bing Crosby films, or bingo nights at a new southwest assisted living campus, officials said Wednesday.

When the three-building, $28 million Seven Oaks Assisted Living and Memory Care complex opens its doors in late 2014 or early 2015 to seniors age 62 and older, caregivers will try to give its more than 200 regular residents and visitors the personal attention that brings purpose to their lives.

“In aging, we tend to focus on recreation because we think that’s what people want. In reality, they’ve worked their whole lives and they want to be contributing to the world still,” said Mallory DaCosta, executive director of Frontier Management’s Mt. Bachelor Memory Care Residence in Bend, Ore., noting that the company, which is developing Seven Oaks Assisted Living and Memory Care, uses Montessori education principles to teach and guide residents.

“These are the people who lived through the ’60s, the civil rights era, and the ’70s — sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” said William Swearingen, Frontier’s vice president of marketing and sales.

He characterized the assisted living industry as “still having the local accordion player come in and play some polka music, and we want to change that.”

In Oregon, where Frontier is based, and Washington, its residents have foster-parented litters of orphaned kittens, and have made award-winning microbrew beers.

Lito Morello, director of Kern County’s Aging and Adult Services Department, hailed the project, pointing out that Kern County has 117,000 seniors ages 60 and older — a number that is expected to grow by 89 percent by 2030.

“This is a really neat thing to see, what we call progressive housing,” Morello said. “If it’s all provided in one location, it can’t be any better than that.”

Frontier Management has developed 50 similar campuses in nine states from California to South Carolina.

It will break ground in February on the Bakersfield project’s first phase, its first in Kern County, and sixth in the state.

The construction represents a significant expansion of the Seven Oaks Business Park, a 265-acre part of the Seven Oaks community, master-planned by Bolthouse Properties, south of Buena Vista Road and White Lane.

Seven Oaks Assisted Living will be joined by Hoffman Hospice, which plans to break ground next spring on an $8.7 million, 25,000-square-foot, 18-bed facility to the south.

Alzheimer’s Disease Association of Kern County will occupy one of three Seven Oaks buildings. It begins a fundraising drive Oct. 24 to raise at least $2 million of its new home’s estimated $2.6 million cost.

“We’re excited about this. Everyone’s needs can be met in close proximity to one another, and it’s creating a synergistic partnership between different aspects of our industry,” said ADAKC spokeswoman Robin McGarrah, adding that clients could then transition to Seven Oaks Assisted Living, and to the hospice.

The roughly 6-acre campus will debut with its 48-bed, $10 million, live-in memory care building. It will be 29,000 square feet, and could begin signing up residents by late 2014.

About two years later, Frontier will build a two-story, $15 million, 60-bed assisted living area. At 62,000 square feet, it will serve Frontier’s most active patients.

Frontier Management Partner Brian Glover said the last phase of build-out will be ADAKC’s one-story, approximately 13,000-square-foot building, offering day services to patients with dementia — although McGarrah said ADAKC hopes to build next year as well.

Kern Schools Federal Credit Union and Bolthouse Development Company announced that construction is underway for Kern Schools Federal Credit Union’s new administrative office building in Seven Oaks Business Park. August, 2014 is targeted for move-in.

The credit union purchased a 7.1-acre parcel from Bolthouse at Seven Oaks Business Park, and broke ground in July for its new, 60,000-square foot headquarters building, which will be located at 11500 Bolthouse Drive. “We are pleased to have such a well-respected, local financial institution like Kern Schools Federal Credit Union as part of Seven Oaks Business Park,” said Tony Leggio, President of Bolthouse Development Company.

Improved cost and operational efficiencies of Kern Schools new corporate offices will translate into enhanced product and service offerings to its members, according to Kern Schools President and CEO Steve Renock. Renock said the new facility will address the credit union’s current and future growth needs, and that the business park’s location in a growing area of Bakersfield made it top choice for the administrative offices relocation. He also noted the Bolthouse commitment to Bakersfield as a plus for Kern Schools. “Bolthouse has a long term outlook that means quality in every aspect of property development, so we’re confident that our new location will offer an excellent environment for our team members,” said Renock. “Bolthouse has deep roots in Bakersfield and a dedication to doing things right that benefits us all.”

Kern Schools joins Houchin Community Blood Bank at Seven Oaks Business Park; Houchin opened its new administrative/donor center in March. Close behind these projects are Bakersfield Assisted Living and Memory Care, Hoffman Hospice, and Seneca Resources, which plan on breaking ground early next year. Bolthouse credits accelerated development activity to the fact that Seven Oaks Business Park is an integral part of the Seven Oaks master-planned community, the park’s proximity to business and transportation corridors in southwest Bakersfield and to the improving economic picture in Kern County.