Northside Hospital-Cherokee Relocating

Buoyed by Cherokee's growing population and its own limitations in its current space, plans to move to a new $250 million facility near Canton Marketplace by March 2015, officials announced Thursday.

"Northside proposes to relocate the hospital to land owned by (the) hospital in a currently undeveloped area that will be known as Canton Place," spokesman Russ Davis said in a release. "The new site will have excellent visibility from major roads and thoroughfares, and there will be ample room for further expansion as the community’s needs grow. The new facility will be state-of-the-art."

The current facility has been on Hospital Road since 1962, first as the 64-bed R.T. Jones Regional Hospital. Northside bought a 50 percent stake in the hospital in 1997, renamed it Northside Hospital-Cherokee and acquired the remaining 50 percent in 2009.

In that time, Cherokee's population has swelled. There are .

The new site, which will be located on Highway 20, is intended to accommodate not only that growth, but growth in the long-term.

It will include an 84-bed hospital facility, a women's center and a multispecialty medical office building and cancer center. Additionally, there will be a 600-space parking deck and 300 additional spaces for surface parking.

Area leaders heralded the announcement, which will bring hundreds of new construction jobs to .

"The ongoing investment to provide world-class healthcare is a testament to ... why we remain proud to have them in Cherokee County,"  said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock.

Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, echoed his colleague's sentiment.

"Northside Hospital is continuously showing it’s commitment to meeting the growing health care needs of the communities it serves," he said. "This latest announcement by Northside is proof positive of that commitment. The new replacement hospital for Northside Hospital-Cherokee will no-doubt, prove to be a tremendous asset to the community."

Construction will begin after the state gives its approval for the project. Northside has filed a "Letter of Determination" with the state’s Department of Community Health.