BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center is set to expand its footprint at its main campus in Bolivia.
Last month, the hospital entered into a multi-year development agreement with Trask Land Company to oversee a planned expansion that will include additional medical office space and commercial services.
Related: Brunswick-New Hanover hospitals announce 24/7 availability of AirLink program
Bolivia campus
The Bolivia campus first opened in 2011. Since opening the facility, Novant Health has increased its presence in Brunswick County, expanding primary care and specialty clinics throughout the county, including facilities focused on behavioral health, neurology, and most recently, orthopedics.
“Up until this point, most of our growth has been away from the campus but the need on campus just keeps increasing,” Shelbourn Stevens, president of Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center, said Thursday. “We have grown so much I can’t keep up.”
Though expansion plans aren’t drawn yet, Stevens said the idea is to bring the hospital’s existing providers to the main campus. Plus, many of these providers are running out of space at their clinics, Stevens said, and could use more room.
In all, Novant Health employs 593 people in Brunswick County; nearly half are physicians. The Bolivia campus includes a 24-hour emergency department, maternity center; surgical, imaging, cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary services. “The demand for primary care and specialty services just keeps growing,” Stevens said.
The expansion
The announcement marks Trask Land Company’s first development venture in Brunswick County. Raiford Trask III, president of Trask Land Company, said the business has acquired and sold property in the county but the partnership with Novant Health will be its first active project in the area.
“We’re very excited about the Novant project,” Trask said Thursday. “We’ve known Novant for a long time and think very highly of the way they do things.” Trask Land Company has developed other medical centers in the region, notably, Autumn Hall off Eastwood Road in partnership with New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
The expansion project in Brunswick County will provide the opportunity for commercial tenants to lease space owned by Novant Health — an arrangement Stevens said the hospital already engages in with a majority of its clinics.
“It’s too soon to say definitively who will be there,” Trask said. “But there are opportunities for other medical groups to lease space and use the hospital facilities.”
Growth in southern Brunswick County is spurring the need for additional services at Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center, situated in the center of the fastest-growing county in the state. Starting early this year, Trask said one of his company’s first tasks will be conducting a formal market study to determine what other uses could fit the medical campus.
“We’re receiving a lot of interest from the medical community,” Trask said.
Send tips and comments to Johanna Ferebee Still at johanna@localvoicemedia.com
