Healthcare sector explodes in growth on 280

When Terry Ponder opened Ponder Properties Commercial Real Estate LLC in Meadowbrook Office Park in 1995, the U.S. 280 corridor was in the early stages of business growth.

Twenty years later, Ponder says the 280 corridor has become what he believes to be the leading business center in metro Birmingham. While new restaurants and business headquarters continue to choose the 280 area, the veteran commercial Realtor says a new trend of growth is emerging: healthcare.

Over the past year, nearly 30 new businesses have opened or expanded on the U.S. 280 corridor, according to Ponder. Half of them —  14 —  have been new restaurants. But the biggest projects have been healthcare-related. Among them are:

Total Care Now, a doctor’s practice  in the former Don’s Carpet Building in Greystone.

St. Vincent’s One Nineteen expansion underway just off Alabama 119 in Greystone.

Brookwood Medical Center’s new Freestanding Emergency Department under construction on U.S. 280 near Greystone.

American Family Care’s relocation of its headquarters into a new building on Cahaba Beach Road.

 Ponder says this fall’s pending relocation of Trinity Hospital from Birmingham to Grandview in the former HealthSouth digital hospital building has spawned much of the development, including many doctors’ offices that have moved into or are in the planning stages of relocating to retail centers on U.S. 280. He said the Grandview Hospital opening in October will have a positive ripple effect on development along 280.

“What you are seeing is a number of different things,” Ponder said. “In the 1950s, Birmingham started losing population like all cities did across the country. Everything started moving out to the suburbs except the hospitals. The only thing that stayed was the hospitals, which kept growing because of the CON process (Certificate of Need). Finally, we’re starting to get a little bit of action.”

 The Certificate of Need (CON) is a requirement for approval by state of Alabama regulators before hospitals can relocate. Basically, they must prove there is a need for such services in the area before they can build.

With Brookwood opening a new emergency facility and Grandview hospital coming to 280, you’ll see more doctors and staff relocating to the suburbs to live and work, Ponder said.

“This will be the first time that doctors were able to live past Brookwood,” he said. “You will see housing out here, inventory starting to shrink and values start to go up.”

Ponder said commercial Realtors and property owners are already seeing major interest from doctors offices moving to U.S. 280 in anticipation of the Trinity Grandview hospital opening. 

“We’ve sold some buildings to doctors. We’ve leased a lot of space to doctors,” Ponder said. “A lot of doctors are starting to discover that it’s not convenient to be in a professional building. When you go to a professional building that’s 13 stories high, have to park a football field away and have to take your 80-year-old momma, it’s not easy. You can’t figure out where to go.”

He added, “Now you’re seeing doctors in drive-up offices. They’re in shopping centers, like at Lee Branch or near Jim ’N Nick’s and places like that. You see doctors having their own buildings or lease from landowners in small office buildings. We’ve done a lot of doctor offices lately in this area around 280, and more are coming all the time. They’re also going to the 31 side and Pelham. All of us [property owners] have doctors we’re working on right now.”

Ponder said plenty of new business deals are in the works related to health care, but he can’t mention details. “There will eventually be retail in front of the Grandview Hospital up there, and they are putting in some professional buildings up in Grandview,” he said. “You will see more big buildings full of medical and medical suppliers.”