Lee Memorial Health System buys Westlinks building

BUYER: Lee Memorial Health System, Fort Myers
SELLER: The United States Life Insurance Co. in the city of New York
PROPERTY: 12801 Westlinks Drive, Fort Myers
PRICE: $2.65 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.11 million, June 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Greenberg Traurig LLC, Irvine, Calif.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Lee Memorial Health System purchased a 31,130-square-foot office building for $2.65 million.

The price equated to $85 per square foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per square foot for office space ($120) in Southwest Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

Located just north of the Southwest Florida International Airport, the two-story office building occupies a 2.66-acre site.

The health system acquired the building to house its support services, according to spokeswoman Mary Briggs.

“The whole point of this is to have as few administrative people in the hospital and medical office space as possible,” she says. “This is about making more clinical space available for seeing patients. We were also looking to consolidate some of our administrative functions into one location. We have departments spread across more than 40 locations including hospitals, physician offices and outpatient space.”

The building is expected to also allow the hospital to save money by moving departments from leased space.

Briggs says the building was well maintained, nearly move-in ready and is located near Interstate 75.

Randy Mercer, Brandon Stoneburner and Nicole Gray of CRE Consultants represented the seller and Dawson McDaniel of Dawson McDaniel Realty Inc. represented the buyer.

The health system is still determining which departments will move to the building. The tentative move-in date is in March.