SMOKEY POINT — The health care building boom continues.
The Everett Clinic expects to start construction on a $24 million clinic this summer in Smokey Point, what it says will be its largest offices outside of the main one in Everett. The two-story building is planned for a 3.8-acre site nor
th of Costco and west of I-5.
It is one of two major construction projects planned by medical groups in Smokey Point.
Arlington’s Cascade Valley Hospital plans to open an $8 million two-story medical building of its own just east of I-5 early next year.
That project is a partnership with Skagit Valley Hospital, which currently provides Cascade’s outpatient chemotherapy services.
Both aim to serve the fast-growing north Snohomish County market by providing more family practice, a walk-in clinic and medical specialty services.
About 40 percent of The Everett Clinic’s 290,000 patients live in north Snohomish County.
Health care organizations are spending millions expanding in Snohomish County. Swedish just opened Swedish/Mill Creek, a $30 million, three-story satellite emergency room and medical building in south Everett. And Providence is completing a $460 million medical tower at its main campus in Everett that’s scheduled to open in June.
The Everett Clinic wants to provide “convenience specialties” in north Snohomish County so its patients there won’t have to drive to Everett for those services, said Mark Mantei, chief operating office.
These include orthopedics, podiatry, physical therapy, gastroenterology, allergists and specialists in ear, nose and throat problems, he said. They hope to have a dermatologist at the Smokey Point clinic as well.
It will be the largest offering of medical specialists outside of the organization’s main offices, Mantei said.
Its walk-in clinic is designed with larger rooms and the ability to bring more services to the patient, rather than moving them from room to room, he said.
They also hope to be able to have patients taken directly to an exam room to avoid long waits for medical care.
The building, at 2901 174th St. NE, will have $6.1 million of medical diagnostic equipment, including CT and MRI machines, ultrasound and mammography.
The organization gave final approval of the project last month, Mantei said. When the 59,000-square-foot building opens, scheduled for August 2012, it will have a work force of 60 employees.
It expects to schedule 60,000 medical appointments a year during its first three years, Mantei said.
Meanwhile, construction is expected to begin within the next two months on the $8 million medical building on the east side of I-5, which will be called the Cascade Skagit Health Alliance.
It will be built on 4 acres at 3823 172nd St. NE, property the hospital has owned for seven years, said Clark Jones, Cascade Valley’s chief executive.
The 42,000-square-foot building has room for up to 24 primary care physicians and six urgent care physicians, Jones said.
Its current Smokey Point clinic at 16410 Smokey Point Blvd. will close and its offices will move to the new building, he said.
“That clinic has been there for 17 years,” Jones said. “We’ve expanded that space several times over the years. We’re just plain out of space, and it’s time for a new building.”
A cardiologist will be based at the building part-time, the first time Cascade has been able to offer that outpatient specialty service, Jones said.
The outpatient chemotherapy service now offered at the Arlington hospital will be moved to the new medical building when it opens next year.
Jones said the plans by The Everett Clinic to open its own building on the other side of the freeway don’t conflict with his organization’s building plans.
“I believe the demand is there,” Jones said. “Any time we put a physician in Smokey Point, we’ve always filled up (the practice) immediately.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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