The proposal calls for adding more than 10,000 sf to the existing 9,500-sf lab at a cost of $6.7 million. NorthEast expects to fund the projects with either cash or by issuing bonds. It will be sometime next year before the hospital will learn if it is allowed to proceed with approximately $25 million in renovations and new facilities. Opposition could come from around Charlotte since the market areas tend to overlap and many hospitals are striving to become full-service, industry observers say.

NorthEast revealed a master facilities plan last year that projected 40% growth for the hospital by 2006. The largest of the applications from Northeast call for construction of a 13,800-sf imaging center for $6.6 million and a 25,500-sf outpatient surgery center for $9.8 million. The two centers would be built on a satellite site about a mile from the hospital. The hospital's laboratory space hasn't been expanded since it opened in 1971.