41,000-square-foot rehab hospital proposed in Rogers
by March 22, 2018 1:48 pm 2,757 views
Northwest Arkansas continues to have a booming healthcare market. The newest example, potentially, is a 41,000-square-foot rehabilitation hospital in Rogers.
According to large-scale development plans submitted to the city for review, Dallas-based healthcare provider Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals is planning to build on a 5-acre site in the Pleasant Crossing addition east of Interstate 49, at the corner of South Pleasant Crossing Boulevard and South Dixieland Road.
The property is owned by Sitton Group of Rogers, led by Matt Sitton. The hospital would be built on the southeast edge of the Pleasant Crossing Commons shopping center, whose tenants include Ashley Furniture Home Store and Burlington Coat Factory.
Everest operates two Texas hospitals in Temple and Longview, according to its website, focusing on post-acute care through both facility-based and outpatient services.
The project is just now beginning to make its way through the development pipeline, and has not yet been placed on an agenda for the planning commission.
Phone messages left with both Sitton Group and Everest Rehabilitation were not returned.
HEALTHY GAINS
The Northwest Arkansas metro was included recently in the top 25 of the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities Index for 2017, and job gains can be attributed in part to the healthcare industry.
“Mercy Northwest Arkansas, Northwest Medical Center, Pinnacle Healthcare and Washington Regional Medical Center altogether employ more than 6,700 workers in the region,” the report noted.
And on Thursday (March 22), updated data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicated Northwest Arkansas is the 14th-fastest growing metro in the country.
The most high-profile example of growth is Arkansas Children’s Northwest, which opened its new $167 million hospital in Springdale in February, adding an additional 250 jobs.
Mercy has two large-scale projects in development, one of which is a two-story, 60,000-square-foot multispecialty clinic near along Interstate 49 in Springdale.
Developing a medical campus in Washington County along the I-49 corridor is part of Mercy’s $247 million investment to expand its services throughout the region. The large-scale plan was unveiled 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.
Mercy also opened a clinic in Pea Ridge last fall, has another under construction in north Bentonville along Walton Boulevard, and will open yet another on Tuesday (March 27) at 4100 S.W. I St. in Bentonville.
Northwest Health, based in Springdale, also recently completed a $3.7 million expansion of its behavioral health unit (BHU). The 5,679-square-foot project added 18 beds for acute care to the existing 29 beds.