Should negotiations for the sale of BJC Medical Center to an Atlanta group bear fruit, the new owners plan to build a new BJC Hospital as part of a medical complex on the Maysville Road.
Kevin Attarha, senior development executive for EDT Inc., indicates that Doctors Hospital of Georgia would take advantage of an offer of land made to BJC Medical Center by Dr. James Bouchard, who is developing Commerce Medical Village on the Maysville Road.
Bouchard, a podiatrist, had offered to donate up to 65 acres to the BJC Medical Center Authority in 2007 after the authority announced plans to build a new hospital. The authority ultimately decided to build on land donated by David Chatham between U.S. 441 and old U.S. 441 at the northern terminus of Hospital Road. That plan fell through when the Jackson County and Banks County boards of commissioners declined to back bonds for a $35 million construction project.
Last May, when the Commerce City Council approved rezoning of two tracts for the Bouchard project, the group announced its intention of constructing a hospice facility, two 48,000-square-foot medical buildings, a pharmacy and other retail space, all part of a first phase. Dr. Peter Lee, chairman of the group’s membership committee, predicted that work would begin “in four to six weeks.” To date, construction has not started.
EDT Inc. is the developer of the Commerce Medical Village.
“If everything works out, our intention for the future is to move the hospital to the Commerce park,” Attarha confirmed. He said that Bouchard’s only involvement with BJC Medical Center is in the donation of land.
A Familiar Name
The project manager for EDT’s BJC plan is Bill Williams, who resigned this fall as BJC Medical Center’s chief financial officer.
Williams said EDT’s investors are Atlanta area physician members, but adds that local investors will also be solicited among local physicians.
He also stated that BJC’s financial condition is a concern for the new group.
“They are bleeding red ink big-time,” he pointed out. “The $300,000 loss in October really caught the investors’ intention. They may be a little skittish at this point.”
Both Williams and Attarha projected that the matter would come to a head in 90 days.
“We’re in due diligence at this point, but we’re going to try to get the deal done,” Williams said. “We’ve got to bring in doctors to turn things around … It’s going to take better management, more doctors and some money.”
I almost wonder if you were once part of the "MANAGEMENT" that helped to put them under?
You do seem to have anger issues toward the Hospital?