Focus turns to second wing in Brittonfield Medical Center

DeWITT  —  The owners of Brittonfield Medical Center in DeWitt are turning their attention to converting a second wing of the building to clinical space.

A 22,000-square-foot wing on the building’s southwest side will undergo conversion to clinical office space and could have its first tenants in place by August or September of this year, according to Charles Sangster, president of CBD Brokerage, LLC and co-owner of Syracuse–based CBD Companies.

Sangster is one of five partners in Brittonfield Associates, LLC — the company that owns the Brittonfield Medical Center, which is the former O’Brien & Gere headquarters located at 5000 Brittonfield Parkway. Brittonfield Associates started renovating part of the building to hold medical-office space after the engineering firm moved to downtown Syracuse in 2010.

Brittonfield Associates’ other partners are Courtney Wilson, president of CBD Construction, LLC and co-owner of CBD Companies; John Funiciello, president of Syracuse–based JF Real Estate, Inc.; Andrew Larew, principal with Larew, Doyle & Associates, LLC, a real-estate mortgage and investment-banking firm; and Anthony Fiorito, owner of Partnership Properties, Inc.

The company is using two construction phases to convert a one-story portion of the Brittonfield Medical Center to contain clinical space. The first phase of that work carved out 35,000 square feet of clinical office space on the structure’s north side. 

Crews are finishing work on one final office as part of that phase-one work. That office, which is 4,000 square feet, will be home to Medical Imaging Center and is estimated to open May 1, Sangster says.

Tenants who have already moved into the completed phase-one clinical wing include CNY Internists, PC; Ear, Nose & Throat Associates of Syracuse, PC; CNY Women’s Healthcare; The Eye Doctors at CNY Eye Care; Laboratory Alliance of Central New York, LLC; and CNY Neurological Consulting, PLLC, Sangster says. The first of those tenants moved in Aug. 1.

Brittonfield Associates hopes to add a variety of medical specialists in the 22,000-square-foot phase-two wing on the building’s southwest side, Sangster says. 

“We’re looking for certain medical disciplines that will complement what’s there,” Sangster says. “We’re trying to develop a full-service medical complex that has many different specialists and disciplines.”

Three specialists are currently interested in phase-two space, says Sangster, who declined to name the practices because they have yet to sign leases. Each specialist office would occupy about 2,000 square feet, he says.

All of the building’s clinical space will be nontraditional — none of the medical offices will have their own waiting rooms. Instead, each patient receives an electronic pager when checking in for an appointment and is free to roam shared waiting areas in the building until called to see a doctor or specialist.

The shared waiting areas lie between the two wings of the medical center that hold clinical space. Shared waiting areas include an outdoor courtyard, a 5,000-square-foot atrium, a children’s waiting area, and the Coffee Grounds café. Building tenants also have access to common conference rooms and a medical staff lounge.

Phase-one construction cost $3.5 million, according to Sangster. Phase two is expected to cost about $2 million, he says. CBD Construction is performing all of the renovations.

Financing for the work originated with a loan from First Niagara Bank. Brittonfield Associates refinanced that loan in December 2010 with M&T Bank.

Brittonfield Medical Center’s clinical space and shared space lie within a 75,000-square-foot single-story structure that is only part of the facility. The medical center also has a three-story section holding Class A office space. Overall, the center is 186,000 square feet.

All but 1,800 square feet of the three-story section are leased, Sangster says. That section’s major tenant is National Government Services, a Medicare contractor that leases 75,000 square feet.