New VA Care Center Breaks Ground in Alabama
By Eric Althoff
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Health care construction firm Hoar Construction has begun work on a brand-new veteran health and care center, to be located in Alabama’s largest city. The facility, to be called the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, will focus primarily on the all-important area of veterans’ mental health.
Hoar is partnering with developer US Federal Properties Co. LLC of Kansas City, Mo., and architect Hoefer Wysocki of Leawood, Kan., on the project for America’s veterans, reported the Birmingham Business Journal.
The report said that the healthcare services that will be provided to veterans at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center will include outpatient mental health care, outpatient group psychotherapy and psychiatry, intensive care management, “telehealth” programs, homeless support programs, as well as workshops and support personnel to aid in prevention of veteran suicide. The new facility will also have programs available to assist veterans who are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Group psychotherapy sessions will also be offered at the medical operation.
The healthcare facility for veterans will offer these services in a facility designed specifically for mental health, which will feature 60,000 square feet of healthcare space all located under the same room.
The Business Journal quoted Hoar’s vice president for healthcare, Mark Hendricks, who said that the firm is proud to be able to construct a healthcare facility for veterans in the same city in which the general contracting firm is headquartered. The new clinic will allow thousands of veterans to access “services that previously weren’t available,” Hendricks said, and he made special emphasis on the importance of America’s veterans getting access to the mental health treatment options they need.
The Alabama business website AL.com reports that the $30 million, 60,000-square-foot clinic will likely serve 25,000 veterans per year at one centralized location when it opens, which will likely be sometime in the fall of 2021. Furthemore, when the facility opens next year at 7901 Crestwood Blvd., there will be parking spaces for about 450 vehicles.
Hoar, whose worldwide operations are based out of Birmingham, has been rather active in the Yellowhammer State when it comes to healthcare construction and operations. AL.com reports that in addition to the forthcoming Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Hoar has also provided construction services for other healthcare facilities such as the Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children and Encompass Health Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital, both of which are also located in Birmingham. Other healthcare projects in Alabama include the Lakeshore Foundation campus master plan, Infirmary Health’s Saraland medical campus and the Russell Medical Total Healthcare and Urgent Care. Hoar has also provided contracting services for the University of South Alabama’s Fanny Meisler Trauma Center.
In total, their construction portfolio in the healthcare sector in 2019 topped $130 in Alabama.
Architecture firm Hoefer Wysocki’s healthcare portfolio also includes VA facilities in Phoenix, San Antonio and Chattanooga, Tennessee.