Here’s where a new Fort Mill medical site will go, and more on the new town hospital
A new medical office building and a long-awaited hospital are near construction in Fort Mill.
Both projects have applied for commercial appearance review with the town planning commission, a late-stage step that typically comes just ahead of construction. The planning commission will get a look at both projects Tuesday night.
One plan involves a new medical office office building.
MPV Properties applied for the appearance review for owner Dobys Bridge Investors. The more-than-three-acre site is on the southeast corner of the Fort Mill Parkway and Holbrook Road intersection. It’s near a number of newly opened or planned businesses including Blue Smokehouse & Bar, a 7-Eleven and a Harris Teeter.
A rear drive that crosses the property connects to several of those recent additions. Plans show a two-story, more than 20,000-square-foot medical building. It will face Fort Mill Parkway with parking behind it. The brick building would be designed to match neighboring businesses. According to MPV, Atrium Health will be the medical tenant.
The larger project going to the planning commission Tuesday is a new Fort Mill hospital at the northwest corner of S.C. 160 and U.S. 21 Bypass.
Tenet Healthcare, the parent company of Piedmont Medical Center, applied for the appearance review. The 40-acre site at the new 1000 Wellness Way address is across from the Peach Stand and Kingsley.
A decision on the new Fort Mill hospital hung over the town for more than a decade as Piedmont and other hospital groups made competing legal cases why they should get to build. In February 2019 a state supreme court appeal was denied, which allowed Piedmont to move forward with plans for Fort Mill Medical Center.
Piedmont CEO Mark Nosacka previously said construction could take up to two years. Submitted plans show a 200,000-square-foot hospital with 100 beds. A separate medical office building is planned, but not part of the review Tuesday. A helipad would sit just northwest of the hospital.
Parking surrounds the hospital. Renderings show the hospital as primarily brick and glass.
Unlike zonings, annexations, building code changes or other decisions that commonly come up with the planning commission, commercial appearance review doesn’t need Fort Mill Town Council approval. The planning commission alone will vote on the appearance review.
The planning commission typically wouldn’t stop or vote down any proposed project at the appearance review stage, but might suggest or require plan modifications that could delay construction. By the time projects come to appearance review, developers already have worked with town planning staff to resolve major issues. Most projects that make it to appearance review are approved.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 9:08 AM.
