NEA Baptist to expand footprint with Brookland clinic

NEA Baptist plans to expand its operations with a new clinic in Brookland, immediately north of Jonesboro. The new 7,000-square-foot-clinic is set for the corner of U.S. 49 North and Honeysuckle near the Jordan’s Kwik Stop and the Dollar General Store.

Haag Brown Commercial will develop the site. Lease terms were not disclosed.

Commercial development has been active in the northern part of Jonesboro, and Brookland has been one of the fastest growing Arkansas cities in recent years.

“The facility will be built to meet our growing needs as a health system and for the growing Brookland community. We have a great practice in Brookland with exceptional providers,” NEA Baptist CEO Brad Parsons said. “We have plans to expand the provider coverage to meet the patient demand. This is part of our continued growth strategy at NEA Baptist and we will continue to build and develop infrastructure to meet the needs of our patients and this community.”

Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks and should be completed during late fall this year. Haag-Brown recently signed a long-term lease with the NEA Baptist Health System. The clinic will continue to operate out of their location on West Smith Street until construction on the new building is complete.

“It has been a high priority goal to move the Brookland NEA Baptist Clinic location to a larger, more visible and easily accessible location for some time and we are thankful it is now a reality,” said Haag Brown Commercial principal Joshua Brown. “There are already amazing physicians in the Brookland clinic. We are excited to provide additional space to potentially usher some new providers into a nice new facility.”

The existing clinic has three providers and two more will be added when the building project is completed. Increased space will allow the clinic to accept more pediatric patients and will offer urgent care services to better service the Brookland School system and community, Parsons said.

The clinic is another sign of development along U.S. 49 from northern Jonesboro to southern Paragould. Much of that growth has centered around NEA Baptist Hospital which opened a $400 million hospital four years ago. The hospital initially provided 180 hospital beds. By 2017, it ballooned to 228 beds and there is room to expand by another 72 beds. When the campus was first built it was one of the largest private capital projects, in terms of dollars spent, in state history.

Each day the hospital serves an average of 125 patients in its emergency room. The hospital’s beds are nearly filled to capacity each day, and more than 500,000 patients are treated each year in the Health System’s clinics.