Mercy to break ground Thursday on $40 million multispecialty facility in Springdale

Mercy Northwest Arkansas will break ground Thursday (Oct. 26) at 10 a.m. on a $40 million multispecialty clinic that will add nearly two dozen primary care and specialty providers in Springdale.

The 31-acre site is west of Interstate 49 at Elm Springs Road and 48^th Street. The land was acquired last year for $13 million, and Mercy officials say the site will allow room for expansion at a later date.

The two-story, 60,000-square-foot clinic will feature 29 exam rooms dedicated to primary care and 34 exam rooms for specialty care, including cardiology, urology, pulmonology, orthopedics and ear, nose and throat. In addition, it will feature a 24-hour emergency department with 12 exam rooms and one trauma room.

Mercy NWA expects to locate nine to 10 primary care physicians and 12 specialty care providers in the clinic, according to a news release.

“Based on our research and engagement with residents at community forums, we have identified the need for both primary care and specialty care in this area,” said Dr. Steve Goss, president of Mercy Clinic, said in the release announcing the groundbreaking event. “We’re opening doors to new facilities all over Northwest Arkansas so that we can increase access and provide the best health care close to where people work and live.”

As a native of nearby Tontitown in Washington County, Mercy Hospital President Eric Pianalto knows the area well and looks forward to seeing Mercy NWA expand there.

“I love this community, and I’m proud Mercy has the opportunity to increase our level of service in Springdale,” he said in the release. “We’re in one of the fastest-growing areas of the country, and we’re stepping up to provide world-class health care both to newcomers and to families that have been here for generations.”

Mercy NWA is partnering with Bates Architects and DeWitt & Associates Inc. to design the clinic. It’s expected the multispecialty facility will take approximately 15 months to complete.

The new facility will greatly enhance Mercy NWA’s reach in Washington County. The organization made its entry into the market in 2014 when it joined with health care providers Dr. Lawrence J. Schemel and the Northwest Arkansas Clinic for Families in Springdale.

“We’re excited to welcome Mercy to Springdale,” Mayor Doug Sprouse told Talk Business & Politics-Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “We know this location will benefit families around Northwest Arkansas and our residents who have been anticipating this medical center. This is another great example of the growth in Springdale.”

EXPANSION MODE
Developing a medical campus in Washington County along the Interstate 49 corridor is part of Mercy NWA’s $247 million investment to expand its services throughout the region. Pianalto and other Mercy NWA leaders, as well as Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Rogers Mayor Greg Hines, unveiled the large-scale plan in 2016.

The most visible aspect of the multi-year strategy is the construction of a seven-story, 279,000-square-foot tower. The footprint is west of the existing 350,000-square-foot Mercy hospital on Interstate 49 in Rogers, and construction is well under way. The tower is expected to be complete by July 2019.

The plan to build four new clinics in Benton County — two in Bentonville, one in Pea Ridge and another in western Bella Vista — has also seen significant movement this year.

The Pea Ridge clinic, a 7,500-square-foot, $4.1 million project, opened in September.  Ground has also been broken for a clinic on Southwest I Street near the Bentonville Community Center entrance, and the other Bentonville clinic on North Walton Boulevard across from a Walmart Neighborhood Market is the next project in the development pipeline.

Goss had said previously Mercy NWA does not yet have any land acquired for the Bella Vista clinic.