Health care park moving forward Marketing efforts, construction planned in joint venture by Brewer, EMH

BREWER – City staff and Eastern Maine Healthcare officials have been making some serious headway on a health care park poised to occupy the city’s recently established corporate center on outer Wilson Street.

In November, EMH officials unveiled plans for a health care campus on a 72-acre site in Brewer. At the time, EMH Chief Executive Officer Norman Ledwin said the project was aimed at enabling the organization to consolidate while freeing up space at its hospital in Bangor.

Because of the space crunch, the hospital pays about $600,000 in rent each year to house some of its administrative services in buildings throughout the city, Ledwin said. As a result of the initial phase of construction, more than 200 employees, now working in numerous locations, would be relocated to Brewer.

In addition to the up to 18 acres EMH will reserve for its own use, the health care concern hopes to develop another 30 acres for medical offices, research facilities and other tenants suited to the health care theme over the next several years.

That property will be marketed jointly with the city’s economic development office, according to the terms of a letter of intent signed by representatives from both of the parties involved in what has become a joint venture. Marketing plans also are being developed for the 11 acres the city retained at the park’s entrance on Wilson Street.

The usually slow winter months have been devoted to the planning and preparation aspects of the project.

“This project is going real well from our perspective,” EMH Executive Vice President Ken Hews said this week. Barring any unforeseen snags, earthwork and the construction of access roads are set to begin in April, with construction of buildings to start this fall.

Though ground has not yet been broken at the park, which has yet to be named, it has been the subject of considerable interest, according to Drew Sachs, the city’s economic development director. He said that the city and EMH already have received almost a dozen serious inquiries from companies and organizations interested in becoming tenants.

Sachs said earlier that the city’s aim when it began work on the park this summer was to attract companies that provide the types of jobs that pay well and would help further diversify the city’s economy. Among the tenants the city had hoped to attract were professional services, research and development, high technology and similar fields. As he sees it, EMH’s project will fulfill many of those wishes.

EMH is in the process of applying for the necessary permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation, Hews said.

In addition, he said, the Boston consulting firm Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbot, which specializes in the design of hospital and medical facilities, has been hired to develop blueprints for the EMH facilities planned for the Brewer site.

Civil Engineering Services of Brewer has been retained to handle the design of roads and other improvements to the site.

When EMH initially unveiled its proposal for the Brewer site, plans called for an office building of approximately 70,000 square feet and a 60,000-square-foot outpatient facility. Since then, however, the proposed areas for office and clinical functions have been revised upward to roughly 100,000 square feet apiece, Hews said.

The current hospital site will continue to house emergency services and acute care services, Hews said. Once administrative and support functions have been consolidated and moved to Brewer, existing space at the hospital will be renovated.