1900 W. Airline Highway | LaPlace, Louisiana
The What And The Why
Ochsner Laplace is the ground-up new construction of an approximately 20,000-square-foot Emergency Department & Imaging Clinic by Stirling Properties on behalf of Ochsner. The purpose of this was for Louisiana’s largest healthcare provider to establish a stronger foothold in St. John the Baptist Parish.
Ochsner previously existed in the region, in a somewhat haphazard manner, within the confines of the dated River Parishes Hospital facility, just one mile west of this site.
Stirling Properties (via Stirling Medical Laplace, LLC) acquired 11.93 acres of raw land in June of 2016 and immediately carved out a 3.5-acre parcel on the corner of W. Airline Highway and N. Sugar Ridge Road to construct this new Ochsner facility. Currently, we are seeking users/tenants for the adjoining 8.4 acres, and we are confident they will come once they witness the success of this new Ochsner facility, along with the traffic it generates.
Our Challenge
This was our first new development project in the medical product sector and with Ochsner as the tenant. While working with this tenant, as with any new client, there was a steep learning curve in determining the best means of maintaining the overall project scope while delivering a quality product. This was also a new hybrid concept (akin to a micro-hospital) which our tenant had not constructed in any other market; we received design input from multiple sources throughout the course of this project. Creating a new prototype is never an ideal place to be as an owner/developer; however, we have been in this position before, and our team knew how to stay the course.
Our Strategy
Good partners yield good results. We partnered with Brasfield & Gorrie (B&G), who had a very strong background in healthcare development. B&G had constructed seven other freestanding Emergency Departments in the two years prior to this project, and they have a constant flow of other medical and hospital projects in their active portfolio. We retained B&G as our general contractor and incorporated Regal Construction (based in Laplace) for their local expertise. B&G’s vast medical experience proved immeasurable throughout the course of construction, from maintaining health code requirements throughout the building to monitoring major medical equipment installation timelines, etc.
We also coordinated with the St. John the Baptist Parish President and her team members before we started construction to make sure we were following proper protocol and to inform the parish of the economic impact of our new development and 20-year tenant.
Our Results
At the end of the day, we were able to provide Ochsner its new 20,000-square-foot facility within two weeks of the original schedule, despite numerous design/configuration and FF&E changes from within their team. Of equal importance, the entire project came in under budget. We look forward to developing the adjoining property in the near future as a compatible use to Ochsner and are proud to have created a new landmark—and beacon—in the neighborhood…for many years to come!
