Spokane-based Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. has snared a large new corporate tenant for its Liberty Lake Center, located just south of Interstate 90 and east of the Liberty Lake interchange.


Bergen Brunswig Medical Corp., which operates a medical and surgical supplies distribution center here at 715 E. Sprague, plans to move that operation to a 52,500-square-foot building that will be erected for it at the far east end of the mostly undeveloped, 99-acre Liberty Lake business park. Summit Property Development, which manages Metropolitans commercial real estate portfolio, will own the building and will lease it to Bergen Brunswig.


The estimated $3 million building is being touted as the first phase of a possible two-phase complex, although Bergen Brunswig says it doesnt have any immediately foreseeable need for additional distribution space here.


Russ Johnson, Summit Propertys marketing manager, says he believes the presence of such a prominent company at Liberty Lake CenterBergen Brunswig Medical is a subsidiary of Bergen Brunswig Corp., a Fortune 200 companycould serve as a catalyst for development of other corporate and medical-related space there.


Elsewhere in the park, construction already is under way on a medical complex, called the Liberty Lake Medical Center, thats expected to include urgent care, X-ray, specialty services, dentistry, physical and occupational therapy, and an Ultrafit wellness center.


A 41,000-square-foot building that will house all of those services is being built on a 2.5-acre site at the northwest corner of Appleway and Molter Road and is expected to be completed by next spring. The total cost of that initial project, including the amount paid for the land, has been estimated at about $2.4 million.


Medical group buys more land


Investors in the project also recently agreed to buy a similar-sized, adjoining piece of land on which they earlier had secured an option for an envisioned twin building. Tentative plans call for an ambulatory surgery center and possibly an extended-care center for the elderly to occupy that building. The construction start date for that building will depend on market demand for the space, but could be as soon as next summer, a project spokesman says.


Bergen Brunswig Medical supplies medical and surgical products to hospitals, health clinics, nursing homes, and doctors offices. Its Orange, Calif.-based parent claims to be one of the nations largest suppliers of pharmaceuticals, medical-surgical supplies, and home medical equipment. Bergen Brunswig Corp. altogether employs more than 5,100 people and has annual revenue of about $14 billion.


The Spokane-based division of Bergen Brunswig Medical serves Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and all of Montana, says Tony Schulhauser, division manager. It employs 39 people, including 24 in Spokane and 15 account managers who are scattered throughout the region. The company doesnt anticipate any significant increase in employment when it moves its Spokane distribution center to the new location, he says.


Bergen Brunswig also operates a pharmaceutical distribution center here, but the company declines to disclose its location for security reasons. Employment figures for that facility werent available.


Larry Wiberg, construction vice president for Summit Property Development, says Summit expects to solicit bids for the Bergen Brunswig building from a select group of general contractors shortly after Thanksgiving. A contractor for the project probably will be named before Christmas, and work on the building likely will begin as soon as weather allows, he says. Bergen Brunswig expects to move into the building in late spring or early summer of next year. Lance Mueller & Associates, a Seattle firm that helped develop a master plan for the Liberty Lake Center, is designing the building. The single-story structure will include about 6,000 square feet of office space and will offer a 26-foot, floor-to-ceiling clear height.


The distribution center is to be erected at the east end of an extension of Knox Avenue, which will parallel I-90 and will be the primary road running through the business park. The building will sit north of Hewlett-Packard Co.s Liberty Lake plant, on the opposite side of Appleway.


Liberty Lake Center is the designated second phase of MeadowWood Business Park, which includes such tenants as Wang Global Inc., Hewlett-Packard, and Telect Inc.


Schulhauser says Bergen Brunswig has more overall floor space at its current location on Spragueabout 60,000 square feetthan it will have in the new building, but the ceilings at its present location are only 12 to 13 feet high, he says. The new building will be more efficient for the companys warehousing and distribution purposes because of a more modern design and the higher ceiling.


The 93,000-square-foot red brick building that currently houses Bergen Brunswick Medicals medical-surgical distribution center formerly had been occupied by another medical-surgical product supplier called Biddle & Crowther Co. Bergen Brunswig acquired Seattle-based Biddle & Crowther in early 1995. Later that year, it moved the Spokane branch of Durr Medical, a Bergen Brunswig subsidiary, into the building on East Sprague and merged the two operations.