Author: signetmaster

With housing stock that spans three centuries, the University of Florida (UF) has an eclectic mix of choices for students. The university has always considered its housing as one of its top amenities, and has touted its residences to prospective students. Despite a robust off-campus market in Gainesville, the university has never had an issue filling its beds because of its excellent facilities. While it has no requirement to live on-campus, most freshmen and many upper classmen choose to live in university housing at UF, which has an enrollment of 54,000. Leading housing at the University of Florida is Dr. T.J. Logan, director of housing for administrative services in the university’s department of housing and residence education. UF opened two new residence halls in 2015: one a traditional hall built with state bonds and the other a public-private partnership that affords students interested in entrepreneurial careers a live-in laboratory. SHB recently caught up with Logan as the 2016-2017 academic year began.

SHB: Can you tell our readers a bit about the University of Florida’s housing program?

Logan: We are a unique housing operation in that we are the largest single site housing provider in the Southeastern United States. If you include our graduate and family housing along with our undergraduate beds, we have north of 10,000 beds on our campus. Those are university owned beds. We don’t have an on-campus housing requirement, which is also out of the ordinary when you look at other universities. We house between 82 and 86 percent of our freshman class each year, which is right on par with those institutions that do have an on-campus living requirement, once you factor in the exemption criteria at those universities. We also do well in a market that has a competitive off-campus housing market. We have positioned ourselves to provide an offering that students want to live in so that we have demand that exceeds our capacity. Overall, we only house about 20 percent of our student population. That may be lower than what you see at some institutions, but we are an extremely large institution with record-breaking enrollment in 2016-2017 of about 54,000 students. Our housing department has its own maintenance and facilities operation, and our own building services department. We do everything in-house.

SHB: The University of Florida has always been known for having great housing stock. That was a selling point for students 25 years ago, just as it is now.

Logan: It has been for a long time. We also have one of the most diverse inventories of housing in the country. The original two buildings that made up the institution in the late 1800s are now residence halls here. We have everything from those two buildings dating to the late 1800s all the way through new stock that we added in the fall of 2015. Within that, we have a diverse inventory of apartments, suites and rooms. We have buildings where every unit is completely different. We think our housing fits well for any student.

SHB: What are some of your challenges with housing?

Logan: Gainesville is a highly competitive market for student housing. The off-campus apartment market is well built; some might say it is overbuilt. We are always competing with off-campus. We’re not competing for demand, but competing to ensure our students are receiving a level of service that aligns well with what they are trying to study at the institution. We want to make sure that if our students choose not to live with us that they are living in an accommodation that meets their needs and has the proximity to campus they need and lease terms that fit their needs. Internally, there are challenges in maintaining 100-year old buildings and keeping up with the facilities race. Florida has a climate that offers some challenges, including heat, moisture and hurricanes. We allocate a fair amount of time, effort and resources on an annual basis to keep up with that, performing a large amount of maintenance over the summer periods. We’ve done a good job with keeping up with a 20-year plan we have in place for capital improvements.

SHB: What types of amenities do you find students asking for with on campus housing today? How have you risen to the challenge to update your buildings?

Logan: It is interesting. Ten years ago, it truly was about amenities: who has the suite-style living, updated bathrooms, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. That is when the off-campus market really got some footing with the ability to compete; those are the things that don’t really cost a lot in terms of construction. You can build a short term building with those amenities without a whole lot of additional cost. Now, we see a shift. Part of that is that we have a lot fewer first-generation college students on college campuses. The first generation student is unique. Now, parents are influencing how students are going to live and where they are going to live, and what those parents are used to — and what worked for them — are those traditional residence hall experiences. Students today are not necessarily seeking amenities, but really a safe environment. They want to make sure, whether from an access control perspective or a staffing perspective, that we have done the right things to keep the on-campus environment as safe and secure as possible. They also want the technology upgrades; they want wireless and wired access throughout the building, and they want that supported. That’s not an amenity; it’s a prerequisite for taking classes at the university that you will be connected all the time. Students are clamoring for the more traditional, on-campus experience more than they have been at any point in the past decade.

SHB: You mentioned a capital improvement plan. What projects does that involve?

Logan: We have a lot going. We just started the fall semester, so we are over 100 percent occupied and we don’t have anything active going on right now. Over the past few summers we have done a lot, though. We rebuilt one of our commons buildings about a year ago due to a fire that occurred, which was a large project. We built a brand new commons facility in one of our graduate and family housing villages. We are always working on a roof and on plumbing somewhere. We have redone a lot of finishes in our older buildings. It wouldn’t be uncommon for you to go into one of our more traditional halls and find it updated with VCT wood flooring, crown moulding, contemporary paint colors and updated furniture. We have also worked with our athletic association on some updates to their housing complexes to better fit their needs. That includes larger beds, different furnishings, enclosed breezeways and more branded fixtures. They need to have that to stay competitive within the SEC in terms of recruitment.

SHB: What is the long range plan for development at UF?

Logan: We are always examining our demand for housing — not just what we can accommodate but what our excess demand is. As we entered the fall of 2015, we had spent several years planning for the opening of two new facilities, which we opened. Those were Infinity Hall — built under a public-private partnership — and Cypress Hall, which was a traditional bond funded facility. Cypress Hall is the most accessible residence hall in America today, so it was an exciting project. If you look at those two buildings, they are distinct because one was built under a public-private partnership and the other was done with bonds. We thought ahead to the outcomes of those projects and undertook the methods we needed to deliver those outcomes. For Infinity Hall, a public-private partnership made the most sense to get to those outcomes. For Cypress Hall, a traditional bonded facility made the most sense. For the future, the University of Florida may increase enrollment so we will need to make some decisions as we watch those trendlines over the next few years. We don’t have aggressive growth plans at this moment; we like working under a system where we don’t have an on-campus live-on requirement so we don’t outgrow our demand to the point where we have to have a live-on requirement. We want to house students who want to be here, rather than those who have to be here. We are also looking at other opportunities, like faculty housing. We are always looking at our graduate market and how we accommodate them.

SHB: Tell us about Cypress Hall, which you said was the most accessible residence hall in America. What does that entail?

Logan: Cypress Hall has some great features that make it accessible to everyone. The building allows many students to attend the university who otherwise could not. It provides a living accommodation that is far beyond the bar set by the Americans with Disabilities Act. It allows students with severe mobility issues to live comfortably on our campus and attend our institution. If you walk down the hallway on the ground level of Cypress Hall, you will notice that it is wide enough not just for two people to pass, but for two wheelchairs to pass each other side-by-side. There are automatic door openers on everything. All of the suites on the ground floor are ultra accessible. There is a SureHands lift system built into the ceiling so that students with severe mobility issues can call the lift to the bed; it will take them to the shower, toilet, or to their desk. They have Bluetooth controls they can control from their phones that will operate the window blinds. There is a Bluetooth camera on each door so that those with severe mobility impairments can see who is there and press a button to let them in. The bathrooms have a system that allow the sinks, toilets and grab bars to be adjusted based on the students’ needed position or their hand strength. They may need more space between the sink and the wall; you can slide the sink on a rail to the preferred position. All of the furniture was built in house by our carpentry shop. The wardrobes have exchangeable interiors. We send our carpentry staff over to meet with these students as they are moving in to set the bar heights and to make sure the kick plate height on the dresser and wardrobes are set to the correct levels. The handles are also extra wide. Our Disability Resource Center works in that building as well. We’ve worked with a number of students and staff with mobility issues to do everything we can so they are accommodated as best as can be so they can focus on their academics. Cypress Hall has 255 beds. It has been one of our most popular buildings because it has suite-style accommodations. And while the entire building is accessible, not every student who lives in there has additional mobility needs. It is popular because the location is fantastic and, of course, it is a new building.

SHB: Infinity Hall is the other new hall on the UF campus, and was built to foster entrepreneurial students. Can you tell us about that and why it was built in a public-private partnership?

Logan: Infinity is a great public-private partnership case study. We partnered with Signet Development on Infinity. It is a building that was created for the sole purpose of supporting students who were interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. The financial model for the building was built to support that, as were the rooms and the common spaces. We have students who want to live here that have the slightest notion that they want to be entrepreneurs. We also have students who come straight out of high school who already have operating businesses. I just met with four students who were running a 3D printing lab from one of their parents’ garages. They were prototyping products and had an operating business. They were at the point in life where they had to make the decision of whether to put all of their energy into the business or go to college. College was important to them, but it was tearing at their heartstrings to make that choice. On a tour of Infinity Hall, they saw that they could do both. It allows them to put all of their energy into college, yet not abandon the business they started. And hopefully they come out of college being better at both. That type of story is very exciting, because that is who we built this residence hall for. Now, if you look at a traditional residence hall and you have a student who goes to the housing department and says he wants to run a business out of his or her room, the answer is almost always going to be ‘no.’ It will be ‘no’ for a variety of reasons, including how the bond funding is put together and whether such activity is allowed to happen in that space or not. Some of it might be institutional policy; there are a number of reasons. For us, building a facility in a public-private partnership, the answer could always be ‘yes.’ We eliminated the fact that we would own the building, which was the biggest stumbling block. That also removes other barriers. Say one of these companies wants to have a product review and they want to cater it from a local company they are in partnership with. In a typical residence hall, they can’t do that because the dining contract governs that they must cater in the residence halls. At Infinity, they can do anything they want regarding food or other vendors to do what they need to do to make their businesses
successful.

SHB: How has Infinity Hall worked in practice?

Logan: As proof of the concept, we have 16 companies running out of the ground floor of Infinity Hall right now. Many have UF students involved in them, but some have no students involved. Another interesting thing about Infinity is that the pro-forma is all based on the revenue generating space upstairs — the beds — not the businesses. That freed up a lot of space below for us to partner with companies; we have partnered with a number of companies where we have given them space in exchange for providing value back to the UF community. An example of that is that we have a fabrication lab at Infinity Hall. It was launched in our college of fine arts and architecture. They needed new space, which we gave them, but we told them they had to provide access to the fabrication space and equipment to residents of the building. They agreed, so now we have 3D printers, laser cutters and other fabrication equipment that is available to our residents. We also have a mobile application development space and a student-run graphic design firm operating in Infinity Hall. We do three- to five-year letters of agreement with the businesses; we will measure the outcomes of how they are working with the Infinity community, and that will determine whether they stay or go at the end of the term. The on-campus housing environment really does provide a unique ecosystem for supporting entrepreneurship. A part of that is that you already have the built-in capital because you have a lot of nonrevenue generating space. You also have a market; you have a building full of 18- to 24-year olds. They are a great test market, but also a strong permanent market.

SHB: Are halls like Infinity, which expands the definition of residence hall, also expanding the role of housing director?

Logan: Yes. First and foremost, it is important for us as housing officers to realize what we are not experts in. We have a longstanding tradition of saying ‘we can run a living-learning community about anything.’ We can do engineering, foreign languages, etc. All we do is build a building and partner with the academic group and it works. With Infinity, we said that we were not the experts in entrepreneurship. We had to engage interested students and others in the UF community to figure out what this building would look like, what would be in it, and how it work on a day-to-day basis. When we did that, we figured out what we didn’t know and we came up with a better product at the end of the day. I do think projects like this are changing the role of housing. We have to be less involved in saying that we are the end-all be-all of the education of our residents. We need to be the conduit to connect our student residents with the experts. In some ways, that is about leveraging our resources to do that. We have 3 million square feet of housing; we are a massive organization. There is a lot of value to that, and we have to leverage that to give our residents the highest return on investment in their time with us.

SHB: What advice would you give to other housing directors who may be feeling the pressure to look at PPPs, or are having a difficult time figuring out how to replace housing stock or build new?

Logan: Housing officers around the world have often looked at public-private partnerships as these evil, bad things that will ultimately result in leveraging students’ dollars to make someone else rich. At the end of the day, if you look at it from the perspective that it is a delivery method that is different than the traditional one, it has a lot of advantages to it. If you look at how those advantages align with the outcomes you are trying to achieve, you may find that public-private partnership projects make a
whole lot of sense. When you lookat how our deal for Infinity Hall is structured with Signet, everyone wins. The University of Florida is very well positioned, Signet is very well positioned, and students — the ones who should be front and center of every equation — come out on top every single time. I would urge housing directors to challenge themselves to think about the way they perceive public-private partnerships and maybe to shift your business when it makes sense to do so.

SHB: What is your background?

Logan: I’ve been at the University of Florida for just over seven years. I received my doctoral degree at UF. I planned to stay here a short period of time, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. Prior to coming here, I was at Kent State University for about a decade. I worked in the university housing operation there while receiving my MBA. My background is non-traditional in that I don’t have a student affairs degree and I have never been a live-in hall staff member. I have always been on the business operations side of the housing operation.

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Ideally situated on a hillside overlooking Royalton Road and Interstate 77, this newest location for MetroHealth at 9200 Treeworth Blvd. in Brecksville offers outstanding visibility to the thousands of motorists passing by each day. Built on 24 acres, the two-story, 72,000-square-foot MetroHealth Brecksville Health & Surgery Center brings a wealth of services to Cuyahoga County’s south side, and features the system’s fourth emergency room.

Building the new facility required extensive cooperation with public and private partners. The site, spanning two municipality’s borders, and coordinating with the state’s department of transportation was just the beginning. Add to that the roosting season of endangered bats that had to be respected, and the project was off to a stimulating start.

Even before acquiring a number of HealthSpan’s locations in Cuyahoga County, MetroHealth was looking at expansion plans and identified this site along with one in Middleburg Heights. Brecksville was programmed to be built first, but with the site’s challenges, Middleburg was completed first in 2013. The Middleburg Heights project served as a template for design, which was adapted to create a unique building for the communities of Brecksville/Broadview Heights.

“This was to be MetroHealth’s most southeastern location in the county, significantly expanding our presence in the community,” explains Walter Jones Jr., senior vice president of Campus Transformation, MetroHealth System (MHS). “What we didn’t realize was that in addition to wetland concerns, we also had to time our construction to avoid the roosting season of endangered bats.”

A Request for Qualifications was issued in 2013 for a development partner for the project, and Signet Development was selected. Working well with MetroHealth and the project team, Signet stayed on throughout the project as owner’s representative.

“Every project has a unique set of goals, objectives and challenges,” says Jerel Klue, principal and managing director of Signet Development. “Our expertise lies in creating a customized, comprehensive approach for each partner and each project. And this project was no different – it had more than its fair share of challenges.”

The first situation to be addressed was that the site was entirely in Brecksville, but couldn’t be accessed without a new entrance road which would need to be located in Broadview Heights. “Working collaboratively with the two municipalities, our team structured an income tax sharing approach that worked for both cities,” explains Klue. One of the results of the agreement is Treeworth Boulevard, a cul-de-sac from Royalton Road to the edge of the city border, which is where MetroHealth’s property begins.

RTA even played a part, extending its route 35 bus line to the new cul-de-sac. “They were great to work with,” says Richard Mayer, director of construction management for MetroHealth. “Coincidently, the 35 bus route also travels down West 25th Street, passing right by the main MetroHealth campus.” “For our patients who utilize public transportation, this is great to have a route connecting both,” recalls Jones.

Work also had to be coordinated with ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation), as a new interchange was being constructed for I-77, just east of the sloping project site, along with the construction of road and infrastructure improvements along SR-82.

Signet and the MetroHealth team collaborated on a creative financing solution for the project, which resulted in bonds being issued by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, according to Klue.

As 2014 wound down, a Request for Qualifications was issued for a design team. The team of CBLH Design and Perspectus Architecture came together and was awarded the design package.

“Leadership from the two firms had been in discussion for some time in regard to working together,” says Marc Bittinger, principal of CBLH Design. “MetroHealth was the ideal client for this collaboration and benefited from the talent pools of both firms.”

“This is the first time our firms have worked together,” explains Salvatore Rini, principal at Perspectus Architecture. “Understanding what teaming arrangement would be in the best interest of MHS was the basis of our firms collaborating. Both firms have a long history working with MHS and CBLH has a long history working with Signet, which madeour collaboration an easy choice.”

In their joint effort, CBLH Design was the lead and architect of record and focused on the exterior design, while Perspectus was the design architect and focused on the medical planning and interiors. “My main role on the project was working with the individual user groups during programming and setting the design concept during schematic design,” Rini says.

“With an aggressive time schedule, we realized we needed to separate the bid documents into multiple bid packages,” says Jeff Valus, principal for CBLH Design.

The first priority to be dealt with were the bats. The heavily wooded site needed to be cleared of potential bat-roosting habitats before the end of the regulated season on April 30, so a tree-cutting-only bid package was released first. “It started with a site package to clear the site, then followed by a foundation package, core and shell, interiors and then a landscaping package,” recalls Valus.

Through a public solicitation process, Donley’s was ultimately engaged as the construction manager at risk and began construction May 12, 2015.

“Our responsibility started then with the removal of the timber and then the civil aspect,” explains Jay Waddell, senior project manager with Donley’s Inc. “More than 60,000 cubic yards of earth were moved to transform the sloping topography to a level footprint for the building and adjacent site development. Drainage was sloped away, protective measures were installed, and the permanent retention basins constructed to gather all site run-off including one temporary basin north of the site.”

“With a 60-foot difference in elevation from top of the site to the wetlands, we needed to be able to reroute the site water around the building to the rain garden, prior to being discharged into the wetlands,” explains Valus. A helipad is located just northeast of the building, close to the emergency room. Underground snow-melting systems keep the path clear during the winter months. Originally envisioned for the roof of the hospital, cost savings in structural steel and operational advantages for craft safety helped to determine the alternate location.

Averaging 75 workers on the project, the total ran up to as many as 115 at one point. “We had a very aggressive schedule,” says Waddell, “from the day of our first foundation installation on July 21, to substantial completion on June 30. The building was constructed in just less than 12 months.” Donley’s, working through an active outreach and engagement process with MetroHealth, was able to engage greater than 35% diversity participation in its contracted work, while also exceeding the project’s workforce goals.

As MetroHealth began both the Middleburg and the Brecksville facilities, they seized opportunities to not only create a new branding for themselves, but also considered how best to deliver services – both today and into the future.

For expediency sake, the building is laid out with the emergency room closest to the entrance drive. The ambulance approach and the emergency entrance are the first things you see as you enter.

Other entries and exits were all planned with the patients in mind. If you are coming for ambulatory surgery, your waiting room and reception are literally steps away from the lobby entrance. Once you’ve completed surgery or other treatments, a canopied exit is available directly out back, so patients maintain privacy and don’t need to go back through the lobby. At the south end of the building, patients and family can enter from either the west or east parking lots into a glasswalled, two-story lobby area known as “The Lantern” for its luminescent quality at night.

“The main lobby takes the ‘lantern’ image that was developed as a brand for the Middleburg facility,” says Rini, “and incorporates it into the two-story entry which becomes the focal point of both interior and exterior while maintaining the brand in a new way.”

“It certainly helps with the wayfinding,” says Bittinger. “With the great visibility of this site, I’m always surprised the site wasn’t developed earlier.”

“Another interesting element used outside the building is the Centria metal panel rainscreen system,” relates Valus. “Depending on where you’re situated on the site, you are likely to experience a unique effect of the varied appearance of the metal panels.”

“Walking into the space, the quality design establishes the level of care patients are about to receive,” explains Grace Ondrejka with Perspectus Architecture. “With two stories of glass walls, the room is filled with natural daylight, and seating was intentionally pulled out of the surrounding departments and placed in the lobby for a brighter waiting environment.” In the lobby, seating ranges from upholstered pieces to large collaborative work surfaces with bar-height chairs. Outlets, both USB and 110 volt, are available for people to use their laptops or charge their phones. Carpeting, Novawall absorptive wall panels and a white noise system all work to control acoustics in this large, open area.

Inside, all functions of the property can be accessed conveniently from the lobby. The reception, surgery center, pharmacy, community room and food service are all available immediately adjacent on the first floor. The lobby can even serve as a pre-function area for the community room. Elevators are available here as well to access all the primary care physicians on the second floor.

The ambulatory surgery area provides 10 prep/recovery areas as well as eight clinical decision units, and three operating rooms. Specialized rooms provide for CAT scan, mammography, ultrasound, automated breast ultrasound and x-ray. Two additional procedure rooms, one additional operating room, an MRI room and an additional x-ray room have been shelled out for future use. As the population of this community grows, and as technology continues to develop, it will be easy for MetroHealth to add increased capacity utilizing the latest, most advanced technology available at the time in these ready-to-be-built-out areas.

Surgical suites are state-of-the-art with all equipment supported by boom arms from the ceiling. LED surgical lighting provides needed intensity without the heat typically produced in last generation fixtures. Gas lines, vacuum lines and electrical supplies are also placed on boom arms, lessening the possibility of tripping hazards in the operating room. Easy-toclean Marmoleum floors predominate in the surgical areas of the building. Adjacent to the emergency department is the in-house lab, making it very convenient for dropping off samples. Two blood drawing rooms are also located in the lab area.

On the second floor, a separate check-in desk serves the primary care department. In the primary care physician’s offices, “MHS wanted to implement a care model that focused on the patient – more specifically, physician time with the patient,” explains Rini. “The physician offices are located within the exam areas, providing more one-on-one time between patient and physician.”

“The 26 exam and treatment rooms all feature a prefabricated wet counter/workstation, as well as a prefabricated work station,” Waddell says. “Rough-in for blocking, plumbing, electrical and data was completed and then the wall finishes were installed. A rack/rail system was then installed and the units were hung, similar to hanging a TV on a mount – real slick, while saving a lot of install and follow-up labor.” Eight additional bays are available for patient infusion.

Large, attractive, barn-style sliding doors save space in the combination exam rooms/doctor’s offices and are gasketed for acoustical privacy.

Also located on the second floor is the 8,000-square-foot enclosed mechanical room. Instead of using rooftop units and screening them, all equipment is enclosed in an extension to the second floor offices. In addition to saving on the cost of equipment, maintenance people love to work in the enclosed space, which they keep immaculately clean. “We have a very happy maintenance staff here,” Jones adds.

As a testament to MetroHealth’s vision, when the open house was held on July 30, an estimated 2,500-plus interested visitors came to tour the building.

“Like all projects of this size and these schedule requirements, a strong commitment of team and purpose is required,” Waddell says. “The feeling of ‘we will do this’ was a belief of the design, CM, owner and subcontractor professionals from the very start to the end.”

“This really was a great collaboration with CBLH and Perspectus working together,” Bittinger adds. “It really benefitted the project.”

“This was an extremely synergistic experience, unique in that we had two excellent design firms working collaboratively with Signet and Donley’s, complemented by our own project management staff,” Mayer says.

“It was impressive the way that this entire team worked together,” recalls Klue. “This was a real public-private partnership – and that’s what it took to make this project a reality.”

“My hope,” Rini says, “is that people understand that the Cleveland area not only has the best health systems in the country, but also has the best healthcare design firms in the country.”

Properties Magazine October 2016 PDF

Integrated Wellness Partners has projects that total more than $145 million in investments

 

The $65 million NEOMED Education and Wellness Center debuted in August 2014.

Integrated Wellness Partners’ top brass would bristle at the company being characterized as a mere gym operator, and fairly so, given that its complex model for delivering health and wellness centers is the reason the company is gaining traction across the state and even country.

The company, which is part of the Akron-based investment and development firm Signet Enterprises, launched quietly in 2011 but has since grown to include wellness center projects that boast more than $145 million in total investments. Within the last year, centers in conjunction with Northeast Ohio Medical University and Ohio State Wexner Medical Center went live. Also, in May, Signet broke ground on a $35 million facility in Bloomington, Ill., with Advocate Healthcare — the largest health system in Illinois — and other partners.

And with membership growing at a steady clip at its live centers and beating projections, “It puts us in a position where we are getting a lot of inquiries about this concept from major hospital systems and other institutions across the country,” according to Mark Corr, Signet Enterprises’ president and chief operating officer.

Leading the Integrated Wellness Partners’ effort is Jim Ellis, who arrived at the company in October 2013. Ellis, a triathlete, arrived with more than 25 years experience in the medically based fitness center space. Before joining the Integrated Wellness Partners team, he helped launch a center with the University of Colorado.

“What attracted me to come here, as beautiful as Northeast Ohio is and to leave Colorado, was the opportunity to do something that was truly turnkey,” said Ellis, the company’s executive vice president and managing director.

“I’ve spent most of my career in meetings with health care executives who love the model and the idea of adding health and wellness to their continuum of care, but they had so many competing demands for their capital,” Ellis said.

Integrated Wellness Partners’ value play, thanks to its close ties with Signet’s real estate and financing arms, is investing significant capital into these burgeoning projects and thus is taking on some of the risk. Integrated Wellness Partners also staffs and operates the fitness centers, which have close ties with local medical providers for rehab and other services.

Health systems in particular find the model attractive given their steady march toward embracing population health and redesigning their care system to focus on keeping people healthy rather than treating them only when their sick.

“They’re willing to put something in the operation,” said Dan Like, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center’s executive director for ambulatory services.

“The better it does and faster it starts making money, the quicker they get their return,” Like said. “We like that too because it took away from our capital requirements and shifted some of the risk.”

Community focus

None of Integrated Wellness Partners’ projects is the same, and company leaders say its flexibility — largely due to its ties with Signet’s other divisions — is what differentiates it from its competitors. The Bloomington effort is particularly intriguing because so many partners are involved, which in addition to Integrated Wellness Partners and Advocate, include an orthopedics practice and sports performance clinic.

“They’ve demonstrated a management expertise and an approach to the market that doesn’t just come in like a traditional health club,” said John Hesse, the vice president of business development for Advocate BroMenn Medical Center and Advocate Eureka Hospital. “It targets healthy behaviors and specific disease states with all these partners.”

Integrated Wellness Partners views these centers as community hubs of sorts. One way the company is driving more traffic into their centers is through workplace wellness programs that are intertwined with the fitness facility in each market.

As part of that effort, Integrated Wellness Partners recently hired away from the Cleveland Clinic Melissa Hendricks, who had served as the health care giant’s manager of employee wellness.

“Bricks and mortar are a platform to localize worksite wellness for employers in the community,” Ellis said. “Worksite wellness has grown up and become a distance-related thing.

In some respects, it usually happens from call centers. What they don’t have and what we can provide are experts just down the street that can be there and have face-to-face interactions.”

Meanwhile, when Integrated Wellness Partners launched in 2011, it was a joint venture between Signet and Akron General Health System. That partnership eventually unraveled just before Akron General agreed to sell a minority stake of its enterprise to the Clinic.

Still, Akron General is pressing forward with commercializing its own wellness center concept — something for which it has earned national recognition — though it hasn’t announced any deals. A year ago, Akron General announced it teamed up The Boldt Co., a Wisconsin-based real estate development firm, to provide financing and construction services for any future projects.

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The Center for Integrated Wellness in Bloomington, Illinois, celebrated its opening on Aug. 27.

The $35 million, 105,000-square-foot medically based fitness center offers preventative health and wellness programs, a sports-performance institute, an orthopedic center, an imaging center, community education and physician offices. The project broke ground in May 2015.

The center will open officially on Sept. 6. About 200 people will work there.

Catherine Porter, executive director of the Center for Integrated Wellness, will oversee daily operations for the wellness center and METHOD Sports Performance.

“It’s amazing to be involved in such an innovative, collaborative project, and I am excited for the members of the community to experience a deeper dive into wellness through the center,” Porter said.

The center is a joint program among Signet Enterprises, McLean County Orthopedics, Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, Method Sports Performance and Sequoia Wellness, according to a press release.

Signet Enterprises financed and will manage the new center, which as of Aug. 22 is also the new headquarters for McLean County Orthopedics, the largest orthopedic practice in McLean County. This move allows it to consolidate into a central location. Sequoia Wellness will manage the Advocate BroMenn Medical Center. Method Sports Performance is a physician-owned sports-performance institute operated by physicians from McLean County Orthopedics.

A team of wellness experts will provide each member with a multi-dimensional wellness assessment to analyze muscular strength, endurance, body composition, flexibility, sleep quality, lifestyle choices, nutrition and more, Porter said. The medical fitness approach sets the center apart, she said, with credentialed staff, physician oversight and services and programs enriched by the project partners’ collaboration. Adjoining the exercise center are a lap pool, hot tub and hydrotherapy pool for water therapy. Also adjoining are rooms for community education, cooking demonstrations, health screenings, group exercise, free weights and locker rooms.

“Not only will we focus on fitness, but we will feature overall wellness programming, integrative medicine services, nutrition services, and programs focusing on slowing and mitigating the effects of chronic disease,” Porter said.

The Aug. 27 grand opening celebration included tours, a youth performance challenge, a raffle and a free cycling class.