The medical office facility at 16130 Juan Hernandez Drive is running out of room for physicians looking to carve out a space as word spreads about the need for healthcare services in Morgan Hill.
Advanced Orthopaedics, Camino Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic, Morgan Hill Imaging and South Valley Neurology are located in the 15,000-square-foot building, in addition to the many other independent physicians who set up shop in various office spaces throughout the week.
“Now that we built this, we’re attracting doctors,” said Cecily Murray, who purchased the building in 2015 and works as a consultant for the physicians there. “We’re giving them a space where they can come down and check it out. There’s a platform for them to come in. Once they realize that it’s not that scary to be on your own, they love it.”
Murray, who formed Lillian Commons LLC, and her team are in the middle of plans for an expanded medical office campus next door, as well as a hospital.
The project is proposed for a four-acre property adjacent to the facility, between Tennant and Barrett avenues, on land owned by the Health Trust of San Jose. Plans include a 110,000-square-foot, 55-bed hospital, a 10,000-square-foot medical office building, a 4,000-square-foot urgent care facility, 10,000 square feet of commercial retail space, as well as housing. A park is also envisioned.
Chris Duarte, director of operations for Morgan Hill Imaging, said having an urgent care center next to a hospital will prove beneficial.
“The beauty of having an urgent care and a hospital by each other is so many patients get transferred from urgent care to a hospital,” she said.
There is currently no operator for the hospital, but Murray said she is in conversations with some “experienced operators.”
She said a preliminary review of the plans by the Morgan Hill Planning Commission is tentatively scheduled for January.
Interest in the development is high among physicians, according to Murray.
“I already have a list of doctors that want full-time space,” she said. “There are at least 11 physicians that are in other municipalities that want to come to Morgan Hill and want to be in a campus setting.”
Camino Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic, for example, went from one doctor with one clinic a week five years ago to five physicians (with a sixth on the way) and five audiologists, among others, five days a week.
Dr. Peter Contini of Almaden Pediatrics expanded his practice to Camino more than a year ago. He said many patients who visited the main office in the southern end of San Jose are from Morgan Hill because of its location.
“We had many patients from the Morgan Hill area that made the drive to see us,” he said. “They really wished I would move down there.”
The Morgan Hill office, open five days a week, has proven successful, serving many patients from not only Morgan Hill but Gilroy and Hollister, according to Contini.
“The number of visits we’ve had has risen exponentially,” he said. “We are growing very fast. It’s a good problem to have.”
The 16130 Juan Hernandez Drive facility, built in the 1980s, was home to a general surgeon and Camino, but largely unoccupied before Murray’s purchase of the building in 2015, she said.
Dr. Zepure Kouyoumdjian of South Valley Neurology was the first practice to open in the facility following a $2.8 million upgrade. The practice treats migraines, neuropathy, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and seizure disorders.
South Valley Neurology is bringing on a third neurologist next year.
“There’s a ton of growth here,” Kouyoumdjian said. “The physicians are very in tune with the community.”
Murray added that the No. 1 question she receives from physicians is the availability of space in the facility.
“The medical campus is something I really think the city deserves and wants,” she said.
