Med Complex Work Begins
$10 million Health Park to serve Galen Doctors
Chattanooga Times Free Press, September 27, 2003

By Dave Flessner
Business Editor

A development group headed by former Chattanooga mayor Jon Kinsey will begin work Monday on a $10 million medial building near the Erlanger East campus.

The 58,000-square-foot facility will house physician offices, including 18 doctors from the Galen Medical Group who are relocating from the Erlanger East building. Mr. Kinsey said he expects the three-story office building to be completed next summer.

“We need more space right now and we’re planning to add more people next year,” said Dr. Keith Helton, an internist and pediatrician for Galen who is a partner in TenDocs LLC. “This will give us more room and allow us to design our own space to better fit our needs.

TenDocs LLC bought 5.3 acres from Erlanger for $950,000 to build the new structure. The partners approached Kinsey, Probasco and Associates earlier this year to develop the building.

“There clearly was a need for additional physician space in the area,” Mr. Kinsey said. “With the trend toward hospitals trying to get others to develop office space for their physicians, this is an area where we see some real opportunities.”

Mr. Kinsey has developed dozens of apartments, restaurants, theaters and corporate offices. But the new medical complex on Gunbarrel Road, to be known as HealthPark, is his company’ first medical facility.

The new offices were designed by Tune Design Architecture and Interiors and will be built by EMJ Corp. SunTrust Bank is providing the financing for the project.

Some of the office space now leased to Galen Medical Group in Erlanger East may be converted to hospital space by Erlanger. The hospital is requesting state approval for a $53.8 million expansion at Erlanger East. The addition would add a 24-hour emergency room and relocate 72 of its licensed hospital beds from its main campus to the Gunbarrel Road facility.