Hospital wants three floors of offices atop parking structure

CHA Health Systems is planning to build a 96,000-square-foot medical office as part of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center’s 10-year expansion project.

The proposed structure would be built above an existing parking garage at 1321-1323 North Virgil Avenue, according to a report from Urbanize LA. The garage, which has a total of 562 parking spaces, is now a five-story building with two subterranean levels. The medical office space would be on three additional floors, turning the property into an eight-story building.

The new proposal comes more than a year after South Korea-based CHA topped out an inpatient building as the centerpiece of a $350 million expansion project at the Hollywood hospital.

The 175,000-square-foot inpatient building rises five stories near the corner of North Vermont Avenue and Fountain Avenue. It is intended as a replacement building for older facilities in the Hollywood Presbyterian complex, also providing for a 26,000-square-foot expansion to the emergency department, along with a new maternity and neonatal intensive care unit, according to a press release from 2018.

CHA Health Systems, led by fertility expert Dr. Kwang Yul-cha, owns 25 hospitals and clinics and 30 healthcare companies, according to its website. In 2004, the firm bought Hollywood Presbyterian from Tenet Healthcare in a $69 million deal. The 434-bed facility was previously known as Queens of Angels.

The staff of the Central Los Angeles Planning Commission has recommended approval for the proposal for the addition of offices to the parking structure.

[Urbanize] – Christian Bautista