Concordia University students are settling into their new building this month as part of the school’s multi-million dollar expansion to attract more nursing students amid a national nursing shortage.

According to Concordia officials, the acquisition of a 6.6 acre developed site the school purchased earlier this year—part of a $43 million expansion of its program—was needed due to rising rates of aging baby boomers, which are placing “added stress on healthcare across the country,” as nursing schools are struggling to meet rising demand.

The university’s new acquisition is a three-story, nearly 114,000-square-foot freestanding building that had previously housed another nursing program. The site, located in Irvine’s healthcare epicenter in the Spectrum District, is adjacent to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center and Hoag Hospital.

The property previously served as the main campus of the University of Massachusetts Global’s nursing program.

“Concordia’s expansion to the new site will directly contribute to its local community and regional healthcare needs by preparing world-class nurses from its current program,” the school announced in a recent statement.

Located at 16355 Laguna Canyon Rd., university officials said it will use the existing classroom and laboratory space on the building’s second floor as its home base for its Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, which had been previously housed off-site on its other campus approximately five miles away during the nursing program’s 15-year history.

“The fact that the previous university had already built the infrastructure to quickly and effectively ramp up the next cohorts in our nursing program certainly made the Laguna Canyon Road property very attractive to us,” said Concordia University Vice President of Finance and Business Operations Mr. Steve Strauch.

Concordia additionally said it will temporarily lease the third floor back to the University of Massachusetts Global for administrative offices and is discussing future plans for the first floor of the building.

Foundry Commercial, a private real estate investment company, represented Concordia University Irvine in the purchase, while a financial extension of the Lutheran Church financed the transaction.

According to Foundry Commercial, there has been little interest across the nation to buy office spaces after the COVID-19 pandemic rendered much of the market obsolete due to remote work.

However, south Irvine remains an exception, the company said.

“There are some markets that remain healthy, though, and Irvine is one of them,” said Chris Bury, a partner with the company said in a company statement earlier this year. “The community’s existing healthcare and medical office facilities—in tandem with the campus’ access to the region’s main transportation arteries—helped guide Concordia University Irvine to what we all pretty much consider a ‘perfect match’ real estate opportunity.”

Peter Senkbeil, Concordia’s vice president, said he was thrilled with the acquisition.

“I was amazed. I was thrilled. I never thought we would be able to get this kind of facility in this location at this price,” he said in a July statement issued by the school. “It’s everything we were hoping for. It’s almost a miracle of God that this was available, and we were able to get it when all the pieces fell into place.”

In addition to the building, the Spectrum campus comes with all existing furniture, fixtures, and equipment which includes nursing beds and mannequins, classroom furniture, computer technologies, projectors, whiteboards, and more.