Financially troubled Empire Health Services has taken another step to streamline its operations by hiring a Spokane real estate company to manage its extensive medical office space holdings.


The big Spokane hospital operator, which owns and leases medical facilities in Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Liberty Lake, has hired WEB Properties Inc. to manage and market for lease to others its real estate portfolio of about 240,000 square feet of space. Much of Empires space is located at or near its Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital & Medical Center.


The decision to retain an outside provider for those services signifies a reversal in philosophy at Empire Health, which has handled such real estate matters in-house since 1993, says Christine Varela, Empire spokeswoman. Prior to that, it had used another property manager. The current administration has decided to employ outside help again, she says.


Doug Hammond, director of construction and facilities, says, Empire Health has decided to concentrate on its core goal of providing health-care services and leave property management to those who know how to do that best.


WEB Properties, which has been in business for 13 years, has assumed the responsibility of leasing out vacant space in all Empire Health properties. Also, it will provide accounting and maintenance services for much space in Deaconess Medical Office buildings No. 1 and No. 2 across Fifth Avenue from that hospital, the new Integrated Medical Plaza nearby, the Deaconess Health and Education Center, the Valley Medical Office building, four urgent care centers that Empire Health leases throughout the county, and the Liberty Lake Medical Center.


About 40,000 square feet of the space that Empire Health currently owns or controls is vacant, much of that in the one-year-old, five-story, 100,000-square-foot Integrated Medical Plaza located near Deaconess at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Wall Street. Empire leases two and a half floors of that building.


Weve already begun marketing these vacant medical office spaces to the medical community and have had great response from doctors looking to relocate, says Bill Butler, president and owner of WEB Properties.


Northwest Orthopedic Specialists PS, of Spokane, leases the top two floors of the Integrated Medical Plaza, and Deaconess leases out two and a half floors to a variety of doctors. WEB Properties will manage the entire building, says Butler.


WEB Properties employs three real estate agents and has a total payroll of 18 workers, says Butler. The added work created by the Empire Health contract wont necessitate any new hires at WEB, he says.


Butler says responsibilities for the buildings under the contract, which include the collection of rent, vary depending on Empire Healths management role at each facility and on maintenance contracts already in place. While WEB Properties is providing full maintenance and leasing services at the two Deaconess Medical Office buildings in the 800 block of Fifth Avenue, it only collects rent and leases space at the Deaconess Health & Education Center at 910 W Fifth, where the hospital continues to provide its own maintenance, says Butler.


Existing maintenance contracts continue to be in effect at Valley Medical Office building, in Spokane Valley, and at the Liberty Lake Medical Center, in Liberty Lake. Empire Health leases slightly less than half of the space in those 26,000-square-foot and 25,000-square-foot facilities, respectively.