Huntington Beach Developer to Build 2 Hospitals in Vietnam

An Orange County development company said Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with the government of Vietnam to build fully equipped hospitals in that nation’s two largest cities.

Huntington Beach First Choice Realty & Investments Inc., through an international subsidiary, plans to start building the two 80-bed hospitals as soon as relations are normalized between the United States and Vietnam. The hospitals, costing $8 million to $10 million each, could be opened within 10 months after that.

Dean Lam, who is heading the effort for the Huntington Beach real estate company, hammered out the agreement with the Vietnamese government during two trips to the Asian nation, where he was a businessman until emigrating in 1975. The most recent trip, in February, resulted in the signing of a contract for the two hospitals, said Lam, who is now chairman of First Choice’s in-house subsidiary, Real Estate Medical Investment Trading Inc.

The hospital assignment is logical for First Choice because of its expertise in health-care facilities, owner Jaime Aviles said. The company specializes in the sale of medical offices, remodeling of medical facilities and hospital construction.

Founded in 1989, Huntington Beach First Choice has annual revenue of $7 million. Its current projects include development of two medical facilities in Bakersfield and a 39,000-square-foot medical office building in Murrieta.

First Choice had first considered building a hospital in China. But the warming of relations with Vietnam, coupled with the tremendous need there for modern medical facilities, convinced the company that it should change its strategy.

Lam led company officials on an initial visit in November. They toured several hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, where they saw antiquated equipment and a shortage of pharmaceuticals that have resulted from years of a U.S. trade embargo.

The United States has maintained an embargo on the sale of goods since the end of the Vietnam War 18 years ago. Relief supplies are allowed in, but few items from U.S. companies can be offered for sale. There are some signs of change, though. International telephone service between the two countries was reinstated recently.

Vietnamese officials said they need hospitals in each of the two cities to cater to foreign diplomats, business executives and tourists, Lam said. Without those facilities, attracting foreign investment and vacationers will be difficult.

First Choice assembled a group of investors, has developed construction plans and has been negotiating with medical equipment makers, Lam said. Each hospital would be about 70,000 square feet and would offer the same services as a typical U.S. hospital.

Aviles said the company hopes to have everything in line so that it can begin construction as soon as relations are normalized. The Clinton Administration has not yet signaled when it might resume relations with Vietnam.

“If it’s lifted, we will start shipping within a week,” Aviles said of the embargo.

The hospital project would definitely meet a need but could be hampered by long delays while supplies are shipped from California, said David Langsness, a vice president of the Hospital Council of Southern California in Los Angeles.

“Finding sufficient supply lines for the proper hospital drugs, hospital equipment, so much of what’s made in the U.S.--that won’t be easy,” he said.

But he noted that the Vietnamese government “is really making a pitch now to bring in foreign dollars,” and “many people are betting that the U.S. is going to end its embargo. There’s great deal of pressure to do that now.”

Richard Wald, president of the Operation USA project that has been involved in relief work in Vietnam since 1979, said some foreign medical assistance is beginning to arrive. The French, for instance, have built a coronary-care center in Vietnam that can perform heart bypass operations.

There’s been a huge influx of foreigners into Vietnam recently, he said, and those people must now be flown to Thailand or Hong Kong for treatment of major illnesses or injuries.