Published Friday, March 05, 2010

Medical offices part of Piedmont - Newnan Hospital plans

The Newnan Times-Herald

Piedmont-Newnan Hospital will be constructing a medical office building adjoining the new hospital at Poplar Road and Interstate 85.

"This group is the first to hear of it," Piedmont Newnan CEO Michael Bass told the Coweta County Development Authority Thursday morning.

The proposed medical office building will be between 110,000 and 140,000 square feet.

"We are signing the development documents," said Bass. "We will break ground on this in the fall. We want to be open in the fall of 2011, a little ahead of the hospital, so that we will have a staging area going forward."

With buildings going up soon for the new Piedmont Newnan Hospital and an adjacent medical office building, along with the previously announced Cancer Treatment Centers of America facility off Newnan Crossing Bypass and a new West Georgia Technical College satellite campus, about 850 people or more will be put to work soon in local construction.

"The economic impact of our project alone will bring 450 workers to the site," Bass told the development authority, meeting at its offices at the Coweta County Visitor Center at Creekside Industrial Park.

"The medical office building we're planning will add another 80," Bass said.

When you add that to the imminent construction of the West Georgia Technical College campus off Turkey Creek Road and the Cancer Treatment Centers of America hospital across from Ashley Park, "we're looking at an economic impact of about 850 people or more," Bass said.

"Think about the multiplier effect that's going to have on hotel and motel rooms, restaurants, and shopping," Bass said.

"I really believe 2010 is going to be a kickoff year for Coweta County," he said. "Let's go for it."

"I agree with you," said David Brown, chairman of the development authority. "I think we are beginning to see Coweta County really come out of its economic slump."

Brown said he could foresee Coweta County "becoming a medical destination for people."

"We're excited about it," said Bass.

Builders are "mobilizing" on the long-stalled Piedmont Newnan project on Poplar Road, he said.

"We are awarding contracts and supplies," said Bass, including "thousands of cubic yards of concrete."

Grading will begin again at the site "by the last of this month," said Bass, and "they should start on the foundations in May."

Steel erection will commence in "the latter part of September," said Bass, and conclude in the third week of February 2011. Bricking should begin "the first week of May of next year."

The builders "certainly want to finish sooner, rather than later," he said, since the hospital has negotiated with them for a "guaranteed maximum price."

The hospital should have a "January or February 2012 completion date," said Bass, and it will take "an other 30 to 45 days to transition from the old facility to the new."

The hospital should "be fully operable by late spring, 2012," he said.