Site work begins for behavioral health hospital on NC 73 ...

Posted on 21 February 2013.

Site work began Wednesday at the site of the planned Carolinas HealthCare System behavioral health hospital on NC 73 in Davidson. Equipment was at work Thursday morning. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

The land deal has closed and bulldozers have finally arrived at the site of Carolinas HealthCare System?s planned $36 million behavioral health hospital off N.C. 73 in east Davidson. Contractors on Wednesday began clearing land for a construction entrance at the west end of property, and CHS officials say the hospital could open in a year.

Architect?s rendering offers a view of the planned hospital. (Town of Davidson planning department)

CHS recently bought 22 acres at the site from CommunityOne Bank, which has owned the property since foreclosing on the failed Davidson East project about 3 years ago. CHS bought 21.6 acres for $1.16 million, according to property sale records.

Meanwhile, another deal also closed recently for land around the hospital site, that town officials say could become a large residential development. An investment group with ties to Florida-based home builder Centerline Homes recently paid $3.5 million for much of the remaining land in former the Davidson East project.

HOSPITAL PROJECT MOVES AHEAD

The nonprofit hospital group had been seeking a location for the hospital for the past few years, saying it would fill a need for behavioral health care in the Lake Norman region. After the Huntersville Town Board rejected plans to put the hospital at NC 115 and Verhoeff Road, CHS picked Davidson. It announced plans for the 66-bed mental health hospital in May 2012.

Now that ground is broken, construction could proceed quickly: A CHS spokesman said this week the new hospital is expected to open in the first quarter of 2014.

Site plan for the hospital, which will set back from NC 73, at right. Click to download a larger version of the plan.

The hospital has obtained a permit to begin site work, though it has yet to submit a building permit application, according to town planning officials.

A company called Site Works is doing the initial clearing. CHS has chosen Robins & Morton as the general contractor.

STATE AND TOWN APPROVAL

The organization already has state approval to build the hospital in Davidson, based on need. And town officials said last year that the hospital fits the site?s current zoning, which would allow both housing and commercial campus development.

?We?re delighted to see this finally coming,? Mayor John Woods said Thursday. ?We wanted to encourage commercial campus kind of environment ? such as the hospital, for commercial tax base and job development.?

CHS has said it plans to create 155 jobs at the hospital. They?ll pay an average of $55,000 annually.

The site also would get a second, 10,000-square-foot medical office building under the healthcare system?s proposal. CHS officials say the two buildings could be expanded to meet future need, though that would require state approval. They?ve said previously that they most likely would seek to add beds for children.

CHS officials have said they?ll bear the cost of sewer and water lines. Those lines would bring service into the development and also could supply future projects at the site. CHS will spend $475,000 to install a sewer line and $121,000 to bring water into the site, officials have said.

The project has not been without opposition. A citizens group last year organized to fight the project, at one point threatening to sue. Some members argued that the hospital didn?t fit the zoning and that the hospital was an inappropriate use for the area.

RELATED COVERAGE

See our past coverage of the project under the ?Carolinas HealthCare System? tag

See the Town of Davidson website?s hospital project page, with related documents.

Source: http://davidsonnews.net/blog/2013/02/21/site-work-begins-for-behavioral-health-hospital-on-nc-73/

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