The golden shovels were out Tuesday as Bonney Lake hosted the official groundbreaking on the new medical building set to open next year on the site of the former Washington State University Demonstration Forest.
Members of the teams that helped bring the 58,500-square-foot building closer to reality were joined by State Senator Pam Roach (R-Auburn) as a community representative in a small ceremony at the site.
The building, a partnership between MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, Cogdell Spencer ERDMAN, a national integrated health care facilities company and a consortium of community physicians will be the outcome of a more than four-year process started to expand the Puyallup-based hospital into Bonney Lake.
After looking at potential sites around the area, speaker after speaker told about the only real choice being the current site on South Prairie Road. The only problem was the zoning, which did not allow medical buildings.
Earlier this year, the city council reached an agreement to change the zoning. Last week, trees began to fall on the site and Construction on the project will ramp up this summer.
“Everyone told us this property was never going to get done,” said John Long, president of MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital. “And here we are.”
Councilmember Jim Rackley, who along with Donn Lewis and Randy McKibbon represented the council at the groundbreaking, said the new medical building was as important to the city as the new Interim Justice Center being built in the downtown section of the city.
“This completes a circle of businesses and services that a city needs,” Rackley said after the ceremony. “It’s just another stage of us becoming a city.”
Bonney Lake Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lora Butterfield agreed.
“I think it’s going to be a real boost to the community, the business community especially,” she said.
Good Samaritan Hospital will serve as the anchor tenant of the new building, offering services including Orthopedics, Physical Therapy, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Oncology, Laboratory Services and Pharmacy.
Other physician services will include: Primary Care, Same-Day Primary Care, Pediatrics, Ophthalmology & Dermatology, Foot and Ankle, and Imaging. Physician group partners will include: Sound Family Medicine, Sound Family Medicine Same Day, Woodcreek Healthcare, Cascade Eye & Skin Center, Foot & Ankle Specialists of Bonney Lake and Diagnostic Imaging Northwest.
The new building is scheduled to be completed and open in the Fall of 2011.
