With groundbreaking in less than two weeks, construction on the long-promised new VA medical clinic in Savannah is finally getting underway.
“We will break ground on April 20 and expect to hold to our original completion date of June 2016,” said Derek Weaver of Johnson Development, the Birmingham, Ala., firm that won the contract to build and manage the facility.
Johnson has bought the property at 1170 Shawnee St. on Savannah’s south side from Providence Presbyterian Church. As is standard policy with VA clinics, the company will develop the facility and lease it back to the Veterans Administration.
The new clinic will replace the 25-year-old, 39,000-square-foot facility off Montgomery Crossroad. While that clinic — an outpatient facility of the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, S.C. — has traditionally received good reviews from veterans for medical care, the VA determined in 2009 that it had become too small and offered too few services for its growing patient load.
The Savannah area has a veteran population of 24,000, more than 13,000 of them currently receiving services from the local VA clinic.
“The Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center is excited to have the new Savannah VA Outpatient Clinic built,” said Tonya Lobbestael, public
affairs officer for the medical center.
“The new clinic will provide the opportunity for expanding primary care, mental health and select specialty care such as podiatry, women’s health, optometry and physical therapy, while continuing to provide the highest quality health care to the veterans we are privileged to care for in this community.”
With a planned 55,000 square feet, the new facility will have 15 primary care teams and include additional services in the areas of telehealth, general radiology, CT scans, compensation and pension exams and prosthetics.
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., will serve as keynote speaker for the 10 a.m. groundbreaking. Other guest speakers will include VA Southeast Network Acting Director Thomas Smith, Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Savannah, and Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center Director Scott Isaacks.
The groundbreaking ceremony, which is open to the public, also will feature an art gallery, showcasing works by Savannah-area veterans that originally debuted at the Telfair Museum’s “I Have Marks” exhibition in December.
The artwork will be on display in the new Savannah Outpatient Clinic.
The new clinic was originally expected to open three years ago; however, appraisal issues arose with the selected site on Mohawk Street, taking the project back to the drawing board.
This time, the VA asked developers to submit their plans, including a site of their choosing, said Brad Seifert, whose Washington, D.C., firm represents the VA in real estate and construction matters.
A contract award, expected in early 2014, didn’t materialize until December, when the VA named Johnson as the winning developer.
Once the contract was awarded, Weaver, Johnson’s senior vice president for federal property management, said his company would begin the next phase immediately, going over designs with city planners and others involved.
A privately held firm, Johnson has developed more than four million square feet of medical office and healthcare facility space.
The Savannah project will be the company’s third VA clinic.
Dale McNeese of JACO Management Inc., the Panama City, Fla.-based company that owns the current facility and leases it to the VA, said the VA reported the clinic had more than 90,000 annual visits last year.
McNeese said his company has contracted with Colliers International in Savannah to market the facility.
“Our 40,000-square-foot building is ideally suited to provide a broad range of healthcare services in an integrated, one-stop medical clinic setting,” he said,
“We are optimistic that one of the local hospitals, physician groups or governmental agencies will lease our facility once the VA moves on to their new location.
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IF YOU GO
What: Groundbreaking for new Savannah VA clinic
Where: 1170 Shawnee St.
When: 10 a.m., Monday, April 20
ABOUT RALPH H. JOHNSON VA MEDICAL CENTER
Opened in 1966, the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston is a tertiary care facility that serves more than 63,000 veterans in 21 counties along the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The medical center is a teaching hospital that offers the full range of inpatient and outpatient care specializing in such areas as cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedics, mental health, PTSD treatment, cardiology, oncology, nephrology, pulmonary and geriatric care. The center also operates five community-based outpatient clinics, including Savannah’s.