KU Health System to lease space in Lenexa for back office, mail pharmacy functions

The expanding University of Kansas Health System will lease a sizable chunk of office space in Lenexa to house back-office employees.

KU Health System confirmed this week that it will lease up to 65,000 square feet in phases at the Corporate Center at Southlake office building in Lenexa to accommodate the institution’s growth.

“This is just strictly to accommodate growth and to create more space for the inpatient pharmacy to meet the needs of the hospital,” said Dennis McCullough, a spokesman for KU Health System.

McCullough said the system would lease the office space in approximately 20,000-square-foot increments. A first phase would locate about 15 to 20 back-office jobs, as well as what’s called a home infusion group that dispatches workers to patient homes to administer drugs that need to be injected or given by drip. A second phase would add another 30 to 50 back-office employees.

A third phase would make room for a mail pharmacy operation, although McCullough said it’s unknown yet how many employees would be tied to the final installment of leasing.

“Will there be jobs created? Yes, but they don’t have their arms around that yet,” McCullough said.

KU Health System is in the midst of building the Cambridge North Tower, a $370 million expansion of the hospital’s main campus in Kansas City, Kan.

McCullough said that while some of the Kansas City, Kan., employees would be moved to the Lenexa office space, the opening of the Cambridge North Tower would accommodate new employees.

“Believe me, we will be putting more (employees) in when the Cambridge building is finished in 2018,” he said.

The office building in Lenexa that the health system is leasing used to be occupied by Mobil Oil Credit Corp. but is now vacant.

“It’s nice to have a high-profile organization anchoring that building,” said Blake Schreck, president of the Lenexa Chamber of Commerce.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 4:04 PM with the headline "KU Health System to lease space in Lenexa for back office, mail pharmacy functions."