Kaiser Permanente plans to build a 100,000-square-foot medical office building in Lancaster to house some 66 specialty physicians. The building, to be located at the intersection of West Avenue L and 5th Street West, will help Kaiser serve its growing membership base in the greater Antelope Valley region. Kaiser has more than 100,000 members today, said spokesperson Kelly Kennerknecht. Kaiser Permanente Antelope Valley and HGA architects and engineers are currently in the conceptual design phase for the building. The building will incorporate several renewable energy elements, and is planned to be a net-zero building, meaning it will consume no energy and emit no carbon. The vision is for a building that will take advantage of the high-desert climate and open space. It will include a community wellness center with exercise stations, walking trails, an amphitheater and a farmer’s market. Kaiser has four locations currently in the Antelope Valley: a medical office in Holmdale, a main campus with a 24-hour urgent care center on 15th Street West, and offices on the Antelope Valley Hospital campus which serves its OB-GYN department. When the new building is completed, the specialists will move out of the main campus buildings and into the new building, and the older space will be freed up for primary care. The new building will sit on a 44-acre parcel that Kaiser purchased with the hopes that it may eventually build a full-service hospital there to service its members. The building is the first step toward that build-out, but the hospital has yet to be funded and is at the very least, many years away. The office building, however, should be ready for groundbreaking before the end of the year, said the Kennerknecht. The design is to be reviewed by Kaiser’s Board of Directors this summer. Specialists expected to move in include cardiologists, nephrologists, pulmonary care specialists, orthopedists, surgeons, urologists and more.
