ORANGE, Texas — Denver-based NexCore Group, a national healthcare, life sciences and senior housing real estate developer, and CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System have announced their plans to begin the initial development phase of the Gisela Houseman Medical Campus.
“Yeah, so we are very excited about the opportunity to serve orange county and the surrounding area,” Paul Trevino, CHRISTUS Health Systems Eco, said. “This is a great culmination of several years of plan with the local community leaders.”
Phase I plans to break ground Jan. 2022 and be a two-story, 55,000-square-foot medical office building in Orange. The majority of the first floor will be leased to CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System for a 24/7 emergency hospital and key outpatient and diagnostic services.
NexCore says the mini-medical campus will fill the community need for healthcare services following the closure of Baptist Hospital Orange, according to a news release.
“The community got very focused on how are we going to bring back health care to orange and the surrounding areas,” Trevino said. “What is so exciting about this is that it gives us the opportunity to expand and also fill a series need for health care in that part of the community.”
The medical campus is located off I-10 and Highway 62, and will be designed to maximize campus connectivity, patient satisfaction and provider efficiency.
“We will be bringing emergency services to orange county. some inpatient services and ambulatory and diagnostic services ,” Trevino said. “It's one of the largest counties in the state of Texas without a hospital, so we are excited to be able to fill that need.”
The remaining space will be leased to independent physicians, including Dr. Marty Rutledge of Orange Medical Surgical Associates.
Planned services and amenities at GHMC include an emergency department/emergency hospital, imaging and diagnostic services, lab, primary care and specialty care clinics, collaboration/community education areas and facilities support.
A grand opening is anticipated in Spring 2023.
“We have signed the documents, so this is a real project,” Trevino said. “This is something we've all committed too. and this is something we look forward to getting started after the first of the year.”
NexCore’s Chief Development Officer Todd Varney says GHMC will become the epicenter of healthcare in Orange and provide an essential and convenient mini-campus venue for physicians to practice medicine and minimize the need for patients to travel 30 minutes or more for care.
“NexCore is excited to provide quality and convenience to the citizens of Orange and surrounding communities through this critical health care development,” he said.
From a population standpoint, the county of Orange is the largest in Texas without hospital-based emergency healthcare services. The service area of more than 98,000 patients has a need for more than 95 full-time providers.
The Orange Economic Development Corporation has committed to bring infrastructure to the site and the County and City of Orange has also committed to a reduction in property taxes that will directly benefit the medical tenants through reducing their occupancy costs, according to a news release.
“It is fortuitous we get to announce the project during this season of giving. This development is a result of a large group effort to give back to Orange and the surrounding communities and has been enabled through many avenues of generosity, including the City, County, and private citizens,” Varney said.
President and CEO of CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System says they've partnered with key stakeholders in Orange to make this all possible.
"The support of the community from the beginning of this process has been striking, and a key reason we decided to participate. We look forward to working closely with the community and our other partners to make this vision a reality,” he said.