West Georgia Eye Care constructing 24,000-square-foot center at Columbus Park Crossing
A nearly 24,000-square-foot “lifestyle center’ is planned on the eastern end of Whittlesey Boulevard at Columbus Park Crossing, with West Georgia Eye Care Center opening a satellite office as its anchor.
Construction on the center at 6596 Whittlesey Blvd., adjacent to Homewood Suites by Hilton, has just begun and should take about 10 months to complete. City building permits value the work on two buildings — one 16,600 square feet and the other about 7,000 square feet — at just under $3.8 million. Brasfield & Gorrie is the general contractor.
The project belongs to West Georgia Eye Care Center, which bought five acres of land at the site, paying $895,000, according to city real-estate records. The center itself is rising on about two of those acres.
Mark Holloway, practice manager for West Georgia Eye Care, said the development is aimed at meeting the increasing demand for services in Columbus, and doing so in an area of the city that is growing. The popular Columbus Park Crossing area offers ease of accessibility, he said, as well as increased visibility.
The 64-year-old company, with about 90 employees, has operated at 2616 Warm Springs Road since May 2001, Holloway said. There currently are nine ophthalmologists and one optometrist on staff there. That office will remain the primary hub of operations.
“In fact, we’re just too packed in tight here,” he said. “We just added a new doctor, one retired and one just joined us. There are other doctors that will be joining the practice next year, and we just need to be able to accommodate that.”
Holloway said West Georgia Eye Care will be moving all of its Laser Vision Center — responsible for LASIK eye surgery — to the new location when it opens sometime next July or August. There will two physicians and one optometrist at that location.
The eye practice will be going inside the larger of the two buildings, with it having two floors. The other structure, which should be around 7,000 square feet, will be a mix of food, retail and service businesses, said Jack Hayes, a broker with KW Commercial in Columbus, which is marketing the property.
He said there will be five retail bays ranging from 1,200 to 2,550 square feet, with pre-leasing now taking place. There will be a landscaped patio between the two buildings.
“We’re trying to hold back two of the end caps for food users, a sandwich shop or ice cream shop, that sort of thing,” Hayes said. “We’ll also be looking for other medical-type users, whether it’s a medspa or a hearing aid company like Miracle Ear or a dental clinic.”
The architectural firm for the project is 2WR, while Columbus Bank and Trust is handling the financing.
Founded in 1951, West Georgia Eye Care has become a regional draw. Aside from offering routine eye exams, its physicians have expertise in cornea and refractive surgery, glaucoma and anterior segment, retina, and oculoplastic and reconstructive surgery.
This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 7:27 PM with the headline "West Georgia Eye Care constructing 24,000-square-foot center at Columbus Park Crossing ."