Rossmoor looking for a different new home for RWC, RPM offices

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Wednesday, September 10 (4:30 p.m.): After two potential sales fell through, the RWC Board explored whether to turn the former medical center building outside the gate into a centralized office space for Rossmoor Property Management and several RWC departments. Now the Board has a new idea – to sell the former John Muir medical office building at 1220 Rossmoor Parkway and buy a different property, preferably as close to Rossmoor as possible, as a new home for RPM and some RWC departments.

In a recent interview, Rossmoor General Manager Jeff Matheson said a thorough review determined that the former medical offices are “way too expensive to redesign” into quarters hosting employees in the various RWC departments (including Recreation) now based at Gateway, and those working out of the Rossmoor Property Management (formerly MOD) building at 800 Rockview Drive.

“We’ve evaluated 1220 and we can’t go there,” Matheson said of the former John Muir medical building, which has been vacant since 2019. “We also evaluated rebuilding MOD (RPM), and there are insurance issues with that,” given the equipment shop building at the top of Rockview will remain active. “We still want to be close to the front gate because we want it to feel close to the (Rossmoor) community.”

Matheson said RWC is looking at a “few different parcels” near Rossmoor, with an eye toward either renovating an existing building or building a new structure on the parcel.

One of those parcels, which Matheson hasn’t disclosed because of ongoing real estate negotiations, is apparently under close examination. At its Aug. 28 meeting, the RWC Board approved a “due diligence services” with GEAR Management, and a separate deal with LCA Architects for Phase 1 feasibility study services, related to a parcel “just outside the (Rossmoor) entry gates.” The GEAR agreement is for up to $45,000; the LCA agreement up to $60,000.

Since 2022, Rossmoor’s Facilities Master Plan has identified replacing the aging, crowded RPM building at the top of Rockview Drive as a priority and as a “significant project.”

In August 2024, Matheson spoke to the RWC Planning Committee about three options for RPM (then known as MOD/Mutual Operations Division) : 1) Replacing the existing 12,000-square-foot RPM office building in its 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 RWC-owned, 30,000-square-foot former medical center at 1220 Rossmoor Parkway, up the street from the vacant bank building; 2) renovating the existing medical center building and relocating RPM and RWC Administration offices there, creating a “Rossmoor City Hall;” and renovating the current RWC Administration space at Gateway to host new Rossmoor resident spaces, possibly meeting rooms and food-related amenities; and 3) building a new 30,000-square-foot administrative building on the current RPM campus, relocating RWC Administration to the new building, and using former RWC Administration space at Gateway to host new Rossmoor resident amenities.

Having the RWC offices and those of RPM under one roof is better than having them split up, Matheson said, from both a staff and Rossmoor residents’ perspective.

The purchase of a new parcel outside Rossmoor, Matheson said, hinges on the sale of the former John Muir clinic building, and the money that sale would bring. He also said the hope is for Rossmoor to qualify for a “1031 exchange” in whatever land sale and purchase occurs. Section 1031 of the IRS tax code allows for owners of property to reinvest proceeds from selling one property into a replacement property, in the process postponing capital gains taxes. Matheson said that could mean as much as $3 million in tax savings.

Matheson, as well as some real estate professionals, say the future of 1220 Rossmoor Parkway, built in 1969, almost certainly lies with health care again. Eric Erickson of Colliers International, the commercial real estate company handling the building’s sale, told the Walnut Creek Planning Commission recently that the building “will most likely be that sort of development again.”

Given other similar facilities are nearby offering synergy, Matheson agrees. “There’s value in that market.”