From the Ground Up: Gene Taylor Community Outpatient Clinic

Owner/developer: Carnegie Management & Development Corp. (Westlake, Ohio)
General contractor: DeWitt & Associates Inc.
Architect: Westlake, Reed, Leskosky LLC
Engineers: Rozell Engineering Co., civil; Westlake, Reed, Leskosky LLC (Cleveland), structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing
Size: 92,000 square feet
Estimated cost: $26 million
Lender: Huntington National Bank
Estimated completion: Late 2018
Project description: Adjacent to the planned extension of Kansas Expressway, the Gene Taylor Community Outpatient clinic is underway after years of preparation and an original targeted completion date of 2015. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is consolidating the workload of a longtime clinic in Mount Vernon with outpatient clinics in Springfield and another planned in Joplin. Wanda Shull, a spokeswoman for Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, said the Springfield clinic would provide veterans with primary care, dental, mental health, radiology, optometry, a sleep lab, prosthetics and pulmonary services. The clinic will not provide hospitalization to patients, she said. Joplin’s 20,000-square-foot outpatient clinic also is scheduled to open to patients in late 2018, at which time the Mount Vernon clinic will close. “Veterans will be much closer to their care,” Shull said, noting more than 9,000 veterans are located within 30 minutes of either clinic. “The veteran population has always been more in Greene County.” She said the annual lease cost for the clinic is $2.64 million for a duration of 20 years.