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The Massaponax Medical Park is scheduled to open off the U.S. 17 Bypass next fall. |
Brian D'Orazio was confident about the prospects for his Massaponax Medical Park. When he learned that the new HCA hospital would be his neighbor, he felt even better.
"We're certainly not disappointed HCA is coming in," D'Orazio said.
The announcement that new hospitals are coming to Spotsylvania and Stafford counties is likely to spur more development of the type planned by D'Orazio and his partners.
"Hospitals are economic engines for the community," said Walt Kiwall, chief operating officer for MediCorp Health System, which is building the Stafford Hospital Center.
Stafford officials report new interest in the county courthouse area after the state Health Department awarded a permit for the 100-bed Stafford hospital.
"It's a whole lot of talking at this point," said Tim Baroody, Stafford's director of economic development.
In Spotsylvania, the 126-bed Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center, planned by HCA Health Services of Virginia, will fuel development pressure in the Massaponax area.
"With the arrival of HCA, the need for office space in that area has gone up tremendously," said Russ Seymour, director of economic development for Spotsylvania.
D'Orazio and his partners hope to take advantage of that demand, though they began planning for their project when HCA was little more than interesting gossip.
"We had no idea that HCA was coming. We only heard rumors," he said.
D'Orazio founded a physical-therapy business in the Fredericksburg area in 1983. He said he was looking at the Massaponax area as a third location for his business when he realized how quickly the region was growing and how few services were located there.
"I was stunned," he said. "It was an awful lot busier than I had imagined."
D'Orazio found others willing to invest with him and started planning a medical office. Last year they signed a contract for nearly 14 acres in the 95 Commerce Place industrial park, off the U.S. 17 Bypass.
Later, the group learned that its property nearly touches the land that HCA eventually purchased for its hospital.
The group expects to break ground on its first building later this year or early next year. It will open next fall.
"We didn't do this because we thought another hospital was coming," D'Orazio said. "We did this because we thought medical services were desperately needed through that area."
D'Orazio has teamed with Barbara Ehman and Marshall Rennie, his partners at Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy Associates Inc.
Also participating are eight local doctors: Kurt Larson, Raymond Chung and Raymond Kirchmier, orthopedic surgeons; and Richard Lewis, Frank Snow, Scott Seidner, Patrick Fitzsimmons and Gregory Kauffman, cardiologists.
The complex will house D'Orazio's physical-therapy office. His physician partners also plan new satellite offices.
But D'Orazio also wants the complex to be a "medical office mall," where patients can get lab work done, buy medical equipment or purchase their medicines.
Near the Stafford hospital, Virginia Properties has started work on a 12.5-acre office/retail complex on U.S. 1, north of the courthouse. Two of the planned buildings will be for medical offices, said Donna Hart, one of the owners. The project is expected to open in the spring.
Hart said, "There is much excitement" in Stafford because of the new hospital. The project will bring needed medical services to the county and could change the appearance of the courthouse area, she said.
"It's going to be much more of a town center," she said.
To reach JIM HALL:
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
