University Hospitals will build Amherst orthopedic surgery center next to Route 2

AMHERST — An outpatient surgery center is coming to the southeast corner of state Route 2 and Lake Street, University Hospitals announced Wednesday. UH plans to break ground in June and open the doors to patients in late 2023, creating 20 to 25 new jobs, according to a news release. The campus will be near American Legion Post 118, Beaver Creek Reservation Metro Park and the city utilities plant, on the opposite side of the highway from the new Akron Children's Hospital Amherst Health Center. Focusing on orthopedic surgery, it will include five operating rooms, one procedure room and eight recovery suites. UH said the surgery center will have the capacity for 800 total joint replacement cases per year. General orthopedic, spine, ear, nose and throat and pain management services will be provided on site. The new UH Amherst campus will include a medical office building. It will house physicians in several medical and surgical specialties, as well as support services. "We are pleased to offer patients in Lorain County and beyond another option for high-quality orthopedic surgical care, close to home," said Todd Harford, chief operating officer at UH Elyria Medical Center. University Hospitals declined to say how much it plans to spend on construction. Amherst Mayor Mark Costilow, who has been in development talks the last couple of months, said he's heard unconfirmed numbers in the $30 million range. Whatever the amount, the surgery center will provide a huge tax revenue boost to both the city and Amherst Schools, he said. The construction site lies within a recently created Tax Increment Finance district. Lorain and Amherst city councils, along with the school system, have agreed to divert a portion of property tax revenue to rebuild infrastructure along the Lake Street-Oak Point corridor that runs north and south. Costilow has said he intends to put as much as $14 million into reworking the busy commercial area to reduce traffic. Plans could involve adding one or two roundabouts. The new UH campus is "extremely good news" for Amherst, the mayor said: "I can't imagine anything better going in there." Site plan approval has not yet been granted. It's likely to appear on the Amherst Planning Commission's Feb. 23 agenda. In the meantime, Costilow said he is looking closely at traffic management, using traffic studies to see how patient traffic can best be routed onto North Lake Street. It is unclear what UH's new surgery center could mean for the future of the existing UH Amherst Health Center on Cleveland Avenue. UH spokeswoman Jeannine Denholm said current services at the old Amherst Hospital, as many residents still call it, "are expected to remain in place until the new campus opens in 2023." She was unable to clarify whether that means closure will follow. "I would have some concern for it," Costilow said. Though he has not had recent talks with UH about the existing facility, Costilow said it no longer has an emergency room and he is uncertain what urgent care operations remain. The downtown Amherst building is still home to laboratory services and some general practitioners. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.