By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Wednesday, August 14 (12 p.m.): Studies continue concerning how to best create a new home for the GRF employees who work in the worn out, crowded administrative wing of the Mutual Operations Department (MOD).

GRF General Manager Jeff Matheson outlined for the GRF Planning Committee on Thursday cost comparisons of three options for a new home for MOD: 1. Replacing the existing 12,000-square-foot MOD office building in MOD’s existing location at the top of Rockview Drive; adding 6,500 square feet of space for new resident amenities at the Gateway complex in the form of a new standalone building; and selling the GRF-owned, 30,000-square-foot Medical Center at 1220 Rossmoor Parkway east of Tice Valley Boulevard near the Safeway grocery store. At an estimated $12.616 million, this is the cheapest alternative. 2. Renovating the existing Medical Center building and relocating MOD and GRF Administration offices there, creating a “Rossmoor City Hall;” and renovating the vacated, former GRF Administration space at Gateway to host new Rossmoor resident spaces, possibly meeting space and food-related amenities. This option would cost an estimated $19.31 million.

3. Building a new 30,000-square-foot administrative building on the MOD campus, relocating GRF Administration to the new building, and using former GRF Administration space at Gateway to host new Rossmoor resident amenities. Medical Center property would be sold. This option has the highest estimated construction cost, at about $22.9 million.

The costs of options 1 and 3 could be partially offset by money from the sale of the Medical Center. While it’s estimated that the sale could bring approximately $10 million, committee member Dwight Walker said it’s likely that if the Medical Center building was sold for that amount, far less – perhaps $5 million – would be available to put toward building or renovating efforts. And there is benefit to GRF keeping the Medical Center, he said, specifically as collateral for loans for this or other projects.

“Not having that property as collateral is huge, monumental,” said Walker, who also suggested that there should perhaps be an “Option 4,” a total rebuild at the Medical Center, at 20,000 square feet instead of 30,000, given not all GRF departments would move there, and because the current market for rental office property isn’t good. David Masenten, a principal with Berkeley-based ELS Architects, said the Medical Center will need a new roof and substantial foundation work, at the very least, if it is to be renovated for use. “It’s a building that is fairly old that requires a good bit of work,” Masenten told the Planning Committee.

Matheson told the committee that updated and refined options for MOD and the Medical Center building will come back to the committee sometime in the near future.

The old Medical Center building was last used by John Muir Health in 2019. The property was under contract for purchase twice, most recently late in 2022, but both deals fell through. In March 2023, the GRF Board voted to take the building off the market and evaluate whether some GRF departments – notably MOD and GRF Administration – could possibly move into it.

A month later, the GRF Board approved a contract with ELS to complete an evaluation of the Medical Center property for potential reuse. This past May, the GRF Board approved adding $13,300 to amend its existing contract with ELS to study the cost of all three of the above options in detail. The costs of the study came from the deposit money that one of the failed buyers defaulted on.