Grandview Medical Center on track to open in 2016

It’s been one year since the lights went green for Trinity on 280 — now officially Grandview Medical Center — and since then the project has kept its foot on the gas.

Trinity Medical CEO Keith Granger said Grandview Medical is on track to open during the first quarter of 2016. Construction on the campus has progressed rapidly, focusing largely on the parking deck and physicians’ building slated to accompany the main facility.

Granger said contractors Brasfield & Gorrie, working with A.G. Gaston Construction, targeted these two structures first because they would take the longest to complete. Brasfield & Gorrie served as general contractor on the hospital’s original construction more than 10 years ago.

“Construction has moved along exceptionally well,” Granger said. “Soon from Highway 280 you’ll be able to see some of the vertical appear for the new deck and building.”

On May 17, 2013, the Supreme Court of Alabama denied requests by Brookwood Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Hospital to continue arguments against Trinity Medical Center’s relocation. Construction on Grandview Medical began later that summer, Granger said, starting with excavation for the new parking deck.

“Approximately 90,000 cubic yards of rock had to be removed — dynamited out,” Granger said. “Once that occurred, crews started pouring slabs for the foundation. They’re now approaching their fifth level of slab for the parking deck.”

Granger said from the back of the facility, passersby should be able to identify five levels of the new parking deck.

The primary hospital facility, of which a significant portion is ready for occupation, has seen only small amounts of work since Trinity Medical was given the go-ahead. Some patient rooms and parts of the intensive care unit are complete. However, much of the structure is only framed and will need extensive work. 

“The actual hospital construction will be more substantial in the coming months,” Granger said. “The timeline for the overall project required construction to focus first on the deck and physicians’ building.”

Granger said that while the target opening date is in the first quarter of 2016, he anticipates the hospital will be complete several months prior. During that window, Trinity Medical staff will prepare for the transition to the new facility by checking equipment, training employees and orienting staff with the new layout.

On other parts of the campus, Daniel Corp. continues its development of additional facilities, Granger said. Daniel Corp. indicated previously that its long-range plans for the complex included growing the campus to include hotels, retail and even a residential section over the next two decades.

The overall economic impact of fully developing the campus was estimated at more than $881 million according to a 2008 study by economist Keivan Deravi, a professor at Auburn University of Montgomery. Deravi predicted activities related to the first year of construction and operations are expected to generate approximately 4,000 jobs, $126 million in job earnings and more than $3.1 million in tax revenues.

Granger said there’s a buzz from 280 residents about Grandview Medical Center as construction continues, aided by the sight of tower cranes and workmen at the site.

“They can see the economic stimulus coming to life,” he said. “This is a real live project. It’s no longer something to talk about if it will happen, but when it will happen.”