FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) - The health care industry is expanding to keep up with northwest Arkansas’ growing population, and it’s not just construction companies that are benefiting.
Major hospital expansions are under way, such as Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s $167 million facility in Springdale and Mercy Hospital Northwest’s $247 million expansion plan. Other hospitals and medical-care companies in northwest Arkansas have also begun or completed expansions.
Health care is just one industry that has responded to the force of northwest Arkansas’ growth. More people mean more schools, more shops, more restaurants, and more office buildings, the Arkansas Business (https://bit.ly/2lTm3ZR ) reported.
“You take some of the other markets that we’re in; it might be higher education in that market or it might be office growth in those markets,” said Greg Fogle, president of Nabholz’ midwest division, which is doing the construction at Children’s Northwest. “In northwest Arkansas, there is a lot of health care work going on. That’s what we’re seeing more now. The other projects are still going on; they’re just being overshadowed by health care.”
Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects of Fayetteville and Little Rock did the design of Children’s Northwest in partnership with FKP Architects of Houston. Mark Herrmann, a principal with the Fayetteville firm, said health care is one of many strong industries in the market.
“Health care has been one of the front-runners,” Herrmann said. “We’ve really seen an upswing across the industry.”
Crafton Tull did the civil engineering for Mercy’s expansion project at its Rogers campus, which is scheduled to add an additional helipad and a 100-bed tower in addition to clinics throughout the region.
“If you talk with Mercy on the hospital they will tell you they’re over capacity,” said Daniel Ellis, vice president of northwest Arkansas infrastructure for Crafton Tull. “Just based on the residential work we’re doing, I think we are seeing an uptick of people moving to northwest Arkansas. What you’re seeing is the medical industry trying to play catch up.”
Northwest Arkansas is no stranger to building to accommodate people; sometimes it seems I-49, which connects the four major cities of the region, is and always will be under construction to add traffic lanes. The region is continually adding homes, from upscale subdivisions for Rogers and Bentonville to more student apartments for Fayetteville.
Herrmann said many health care organizations may have wanted to expand in northwest Arkansas but shied away or delayed plans when the recession hit in 2007-08. Now that things have stabilized and the population growth continues unabated, many hospitals clearly decided, Herrmann said that the “time was now.”
“There are not enough services whether it is retail or medical services or even schools to serve the growing population,” Fogle said. “It’s a high tide floats all boats kind of thing.”
Cody Crawford of C.R. Crawford Construction of Fayetteville said health care expansion isn’t limited to bigger and more hospitals. Crawford is building an assisted-living facility for Primrose in Rogers, and Mercy’s expansion includes clinics in smaller towns in northwest Arkansas.
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Information from: Arkansas Business, https://www.arkansasbusiness.com
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