BIRMINGHAM, AL-It is safe to say that cheers went up inside the headquarters of two separate entities in Birmingham in recent weeks after it was announced that the Alabama Supreme Court refused to hear any further arguments against a local hospital's quest to move into a new– but never completed– building on US 280.

By putting a legal end to a challenge from two area hospitals, the Alabama court, in effect, has allowed Trinity Medical Center of Birmingham to move forward with its plans to spend about $280 million to complete construction on, and then relocate to, the 1-million square foot hospital structure on a hill overlooking the busy highway. The building was about halfway complete in the early 2000s as the future home to HealthSouth Corp.'s Digital Hospital. However, a massive accounting fraud put a halt to construction a couple of years later.

“This is the green light we have awaited for more than four years,” says Trinity President and CEO Keith Granger. The hospital is part of Franklin, TN-based Community Health Systems.

It's also likely that the news triggered a celebration inside the offices of the Daniel Corp., a commercial real estate firm whose officials can see the shell of the 12-story future Trinity Medical Center from their offices on a 103-acre campus surrounding the hospital. On that campus also sits Daniel Corp.'s Cahaba Grand Conference Center and about 55 acres of developable land.

For Daniel Corp., which acquired the vacant Digital Hospital and its campus about five years ago, the court's action is the impetus it's been waiting for to launch a series of projects that could someday total as much as $750 million. In recent weeks, the company sold the hospital structure, its 13.5-acre site and an additional 13.5 acres to Trinity.

To get the ball rolling on its end, Daniel Corp. is planning a 200,000-square-foot, $40 million medical office building that would be attached to the hospital; it will likely enter a ground lease for the land from Trinity. Daniel Corp. plans to have the seven-story MOB completed at about the same time the new Trinity hospital opens, perhaps in early 2016.

“We're anticipating sufficient demand to fill up the medical office building,” says Jim Adams, a senior vice president with Daniel Corp., in an interview with Healthcare Real Estate Insights. That's because officials plan to market the building to tenants in medical offices on or near Trinity's current hospital campus in the Crestwood neighborhood of Birmingham, about 10 miles from the replacement hospital.

Daniel Corp. will develop, own, manage and provide leasing services for the healthcare real estate, which will be designed by Nashville, TN-based Earl Swensson Associates Inc.

“The court ruling and Trinity's move into the building are certainly the catalysts for getting development moving there,” Adams adds. “Had that not happened, we were looking at other opportunities as well, but having the hospital's plans moving forward is certainly good news for our plans and as well as for Trinity's.”

John B. Mugford is the Editor of Healthcare Real Estate Insights™, the nation's first and only publication totally dedicated to covering news and trends in healthcare real estate development, financing and investment. For more information, please visit www.HREInsights.com.