UCHealth on Friday said it plans to build a new hospital and health center in Greeley, a move that would provide 500 temporary construction jobs to an area where slumping oil and gas prices have led to worker layoffs.
The $185 million project is a response to residents’ demands for more local inpatient and outpatient services and would support 300 new health care jobs, according to a UCHealth news release.
The complex is planned for 22 acres at the intersection of U.S. 34 and 71st Avenue, about 12 miles east of UCHealth’s Loveland campus. UCHealth also is. In May, UCHealth announced it would build a $315 million hospital and outpatient facility in Highlands Ranch, with the hospital scheduled to open in 2018.
Work on the $135 million UCHealth Greeley Hospital is expected to begin in early 2017. The 153,000-square-foot facility open with 53 inpatient beds but have room to grow to approximately 90 beds. It is scheduled to open in late 2018. Services will include an intensive care unit, an emergency department, three operating rooms, advanced cardiology services and a birthing center, among others.
Construction of the $50 million UCHealth Greeley Health Center is expected to begin this fall, with a target opening in late 2017. The 112,000-square-foot outpatient medical office will hold 192 exam rooms and consolidate offerings already provided in the community. Services will include primary care, oncology, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric care, general surgery, orthopedics, physical therapy and rehabilitation. Advanced lab, imaging and pharmacy services will be available, as well.
In the past two years, more than 6,000 patients from the Greeley area left the city to be admitted at a UCHealth hospital, according to the release.
Daniel Zenk, a Greeley-based UCHealth internal medicine physician, said in the release that he often has to send patients across town for specialist care or other services, such as physical therapy. “This new, advanced facility will offer all these services under one roof for UCHealth patients.”
Both of the new buildings will be staffed by community physicians and by UCHealth’s physician group, Colorado Health Medical Group.
UCHealth also is planning a $1 million renovation of the Greeley Medical Clinic at 1900 16th St., about 6 miles northeast of the new facilities. The project includes 15 exam rooms and improved imaging and lab capabilities and is expected to be completed by late 2017. The walk-in clinic will continue to provide primary care and occupational health services.
Chad Howell, Greeley’s economic development director, said he was surprised, but pleased, to hear about UCHeath’s plans because the western edge of Greeley has gone undeveloped for so long.
“If we want to continue to be a community of choice, we have to have adequate health care,” he said.
Howell said he did not have an economic analysis of the project because it is not receiving city incentives.
He said Greeley has experienced “phenomenal residential growth,” with population averaging a steady 2 percent growth rate per year for at least the past decade. Since 1980, the city’s population has doubled to about 101,000, Howell said.
“Things are kind of exploding here because we’re such an affordable destination,” he said.
Greeley’s long-term land-use plans call for commercial and industrial development along U.S. 34, he said.
“We don’t have full infrastructure and public services out there,” he said, “but Greeley has the physical space to become the largest city in northern Colorado.”
