FAMC takes ‘fresh look’ at Alco building

The old Alco building soon will be no more.

After looking at the cost of renovating the building, the administration at the Fremont Area Medical Center has decided against remodeling the more than 30-year-old building.

Instead, it will be torn down in the next several weeks to make way for the first phase of Fremont Medical Park, a 14,000-square-foot medical office building.

“We are taking a fresh look,” said Patrick Booth, FAMC president and chief executive officer. “Almost from the time I got here, I had concerns, but I didn’t act on them until I got the price tag back at

$4 million to remodel.”

A big chunk of that cost was going to be to move the rehab department, he said.

“The more we looked at it, we figured if 40 percent of the $4 million price tag was to move rehab, I’m not sure that’s in our best interest,” Booth said. “The design of the medical offices was going to be limited.”

With the decision made to keep the rehabilitation department in the hospital, he said keeping the whole building just didn’t make sense. That decision was made to keep inpatient and outpatient rehab in the same place, he said.

The original concept was to create a “medical mall” including physician offices, an outpatient rehabilitation center and outpatient dialysis program and offices for the FAMC Home Health Care and Hospice programs.

Instead of trying to adapt the giant concrete building, the decision has been made with board approval to demolish the old Alco building and develop a medical park with several smaller buildings.

“RAI (Dialysis) was going with us,” Booth said. “I didn’t want to take hospital funds for a building to rent to a business. We started to take a fresh look at the campus.”

Currently FAMC is in negotiations to sell about a 1-acre parcel of land next to Fremont Family Care and behind the Alco land to RAI.

“This way, they’re taking the business risk,” Booth said.

The new plan is to develop one 14,000-square-foot building with room for three potential future buildings on the grounds.

“We thought it would be better for the future to build a campus versus one locked building,” Booth said. “We wanted to build an office building that was just a medical facility. It’s less expensive and we’re adding to the value of the property.”

Instead of the estimated $4 million to remodel the old Alco building, he said it will cost $2 million to $3 million to develop the new campus concept. The first building will house internal medicine specialists, pulmonologists and 2-3 other doctors in three pod areas. There will be a main waiting area for all of the offices.

The old Alco building has been gutted and is ready for demolition. Once started, that is expected to take about 30 days.

“We’ve already removed all the fixtures, ductwork and insulation and completed asbestos abatement in preparation for the remodel,” said Dave Hanen, FAMC vice president and chief financial officer. “The same work we did in preparation for the remodel is also necessary for demolition. We’ll be saving at least $1 million.”

After the demolition, the first new construction will begin around the first of August and will take place on the corner of Clarkson Street and Reynolds Road, an area currently used for employee parking. Construction is estimated to take 6-8 months and is expected to be complete by spring of 2009, just a few months after the original early 2009 date for remodeling the old Alco building.

Booth said there is about $200,000 invested in architectural fees and work already done that will not be maintained after the Alco building is leveled.

While it was not planned to replace the money lost, he said the sale of property to RAI Dialysis will make up for the loss.

“By redesigning the property in this manner, we have been able to immediately beautify the area, tie the campus together and save money in the process,” Hanesn said. “It will also allow us to develop the entire property as the needs arise.”

After re-evaluating land prices in the area, it was determined that the former Alco property was worth more than originally paid for it.

“We really bought it for the land,” Booth said. “The building would have been great if we could have used it, but we couldn’t. We think we’ve got a better over all plan.”