New details have come out on Grady Health System’s planned $1B medical campus south of Downtown Atlanta.
Union City, one of the fastest-growing suburban cities in Fulton County, this week filed a development of regional impact permit for the project with Georgia’s community affairs department. The application marks the latest step in the process for Grady to open a new 200-bed acute care hospital along Campbellton Fairburn Road.
:quality(75))
The DRI application states that Grady is seeking to build a 1.1M SF hospital, a 220K SF medical office building and an 18K SF central energy plant on the 40-acre parcel. The campus, once it’s completed by 2036, is expected to contribute $3.6M to $6.8M in local taxes annually and employ 1,880 people full time, according to the application.
The Georgia Department of Community Affairs regularly reviews construction projects that will have a regional impact on infrastructure.
Grady opened a freestanding emergency room facility at the site in June, which is slated to be integrated into the new hospital. City planners hope the new hospital will address the healthcare desert left by the closures of Wellstar Health System’s Atlanta Medical Center South and Atlanta Medical Center in 2022.
Grady did not respond to a request for comment.
The healthcare system first unveiled its medical campus plan in March. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported that the facility will include a surgery center and a pediatric care unit run by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Grady obtained certificate-of-need approval from the Georgia Department of Community Health in August, a process that ensures there is a need for a new medical facility without duplicating services in a local community, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.
Fulton County approved $300M in bond funding for the project in March. Grady is planning to pay another $300M and is seeking to raise an additional $300M from philanthropic sources.
Grady isn’t the only health system looking to expand into the southern part of Fulton County to address a shortage of acute medical care.
:quality(75))
In August, Atrium Health, along with Morehouse School of Medicine, obtained approval for a $700M teaching hospital off 675 Metropolitan Parkway, serving Central and South Fulton County communities.
Atrium’s goal is “care for all,” with plans to balance redeveloping aged hospitals in its system as well as expanding ambulatory care, Bennett Thompson, the company’s vice president of real estate, said Wednesday during Bisnow’s Atlanta Healthcare Conference.
Atrium, which operates Navicent The Medical Center in Macon and the Floyd Medical Center in Rome, saw an opportunity to expand into South Fulton after the closures of Wellstar’s hospitals, Thompson said.
“It’s really about health equity, and that’s driving a lot of it,” he said. “Those are the driving reasons for our investment in Atlanta.”
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)