The Bastrop facility will be situated on 25 acres at Old Austin Highway and Hasler Boulevard, not far from Texas 71. Dennis Jack, hospital CEO, tells GlobeSt.com that the hospital has the site, currently undeveloped land where cattle graze, under option. Several buildings, totaling 50,000 sf, for doctors' offices also are planned.
Jack says work could start on the Bastrop project by October. The Smithville expansion also should be under way this year.
Smithville Regional Hospital is operated by the non-taxing, not-for-profit Smithville Hospital Authority. The 36-bed hospital in Smithville opened in 1995. Bastrop is about 30 miles east of Austin on Texas 71 and Smithville is about 12 miles farther east.
Jack says the hospital authority probably will issue tax-free bonds to finance the projects. It also has about $2.5 million in its capital fund.
Bastrop economic development officials welcome the new hospital. "It's another piece of the puzzle," says Joe Newman, executive director of Bastrop Economic Development Foundation.
The new 22-bed hospital in Bastrop will house obstetrics and baby delivery services, a complete imaging center, labs, pharmacy and physical therapy space. A wellness center, that would offer services to the general public as well as physical therapy patients, is being considered. "That's a pretty common procedure happening across the country now," Jack says. "Get people to think about your hospital when they're well instead of just when they're sick."
The central plant for the facility will be designed with expansion in mind. "My crystal ball tells me that by 2010, we'll be a 75-bed hospital," Jack says. "So we're going to build a central plant with that in mind." The Austin-based architectural firm O'Connell Robertson & Associates is designing the Bastrop hospital.
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