Medical building progress: First phase of project on track to finish in August

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John M. Steiner / The Sun Todd Hudspeth, president and CEO of the Jamestown Regional Medical Center, talks Friday about the construction of the new medical building being attached to the hospital.

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Work on the Jamestown Medical Building is right on schedule, according to a hospital administrator.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement from employees and a lot of patients ask what’s going on,” said Todd Hudspeth, Jamestown Regional Medical Center president and CEO.

What’s going on is that crews from the Davis Group are making headway on the construction of the shell of a 46,000-square foot building connected to JRMC.

“Technically we’re not the landlord but we’ll be a tenant in the building,” Hudspeth said. Davis Group will own the building on land it will lease from JRMC.

JRMC will use 14,000 square feet as space for clinic space. Essentia Health will use 18,000 square feet as its new clinic. And the Veterans Affairs clinic could take up about 5,000 square feet, though nothing has been announced yet, he said.

The project is being completed in two phases. The first is the construction of the building’s shell. When completed in August the shell will be the outside walls, a cement floor and a ceiling overhead.

The second phase is the construction of the inside. JRMC has not designed its space yet and is currently working with architects. Essentia has its clinic space designed.

“It’s a pretty tight timeframe to get it done in six months,” Hudspeth said. “… Putting the shell up takes less time than filling it up.”

One of the things that will be used to fill JRMC’s part of the new building will be a permanent MRI machine. Currently the hospital has one in a truck parked outside permanently. Previously the truck would only be in town on certain days.

Hudspeth said he’d like to see Jamestown’s other two health care clinics relocate to the JMB.

“We’re hopeful additional development will occur out near us too,” he said.

The steel outline of the building was complete in early June and the parking lot also started to take shape then. In the middle of June some outside structures were complete like columns at the entrance canopy. The north side of the building also had drywall installed at that time.

Exterior drywall work started around the middle of June and brickwork is being installed on the outside wall. Asphalt was laid Thursday and the roof is about 80 percent complete.

In the middle of July interior stud wall framing will begin and the main ductwork for heating and cooling will begin.

In August, interior design work will start.

Hudspeth said construction is on schedule for a January 2013 opening.

Sun reporter Ben Rodgers can be reached at 701-952-8455 or by email at brodgers@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, medical