CANTON — The St. Lawrence Health System is close to beginning construction on a 56,000-square-foot medical facility off U.S. Route 11 in the town of Canton.
The project is expected to cost $33.7 million, including the $900,000 price of the 270-acre plot acquired last year by the St. Lawrence Health System (SLHS), according to the president and CEO of SLHS, David Ackers. He is also president and CEO of Canton-Potsdam Hospital.
About 20 acres of the 270 will be used for the facility, he adds.
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The facility will have a little over 100 employees, he says, about one–third of whom will be new employees. The remaining two–thirds will be transferred from other locations of SLHS.
SLHS will own the facility. It is the parent organization of both Canton-Potsdam Hospital, situated at 50 Leroy St. in Potsdam, and Gouverneur Hospital, located at 77 West Barney St. in Gouverneur.
This project has been in the works for about three years, according to Ackers. He says it is needed to alleviate some stress from the other hospitals. Over the last two years, the geographic center of the system’s service area has been moving west as the population of Gouverneur has grown, explains Ackers.
“We’ve been adding, on average, 16,000 square feet of physician office space every year for seven consecutive years, and we’re out of space yet again,” he says, adding that the surgical floor at Canton-Potsdam Hospital is currently running at or above capacity.
Those numbers are going to continue to escalate. “We need space for newly recruited physicians,” who are either on their way, or will be coming within the next year, he says. About 36,000 square feet of the new facility will be offices for physicians, and will be immediately filled upon completion.
Gouverneur Hospital is also faced with limitations to its surgical capabilities, which Ackers says the Canton facility will help address.
The facility will be home to both surgeons, and specialists that the regional population needs and can support, says Ackers. The types of specialists the area can support will grow as the population in the region also grows, he adds.
Developers anticipate that construction will move forward in September or October this year, according to Ackers. SLHS is waiting to be approved for a certificate of need from the New York State Health Department before ground can be broken.
Ackers is hopeful that the facility will open in late fall of 2016.
Part of the $33 million cost will be paid for with cash, and some will be covered by a loan, Ackers says. SLHS is also working with the state Dormitory Authority to
assist in tax-exempt bond financing.
“We have a long-standing relationship with KeyBank, and I believe that they’ll be the lead bank in getting the bonds placed,” Ackers says.
The Pike Company, based in Rochester, has been assisting in making cost-estimates, and will act as the construction manager on the project, according to Ackers. New Hampshire–based Lavallee Brensinger Architects is handling the architectural designs.
