Thanks to two years of public discussions and media coverage and a flurry of recent construction activity along Market and Main streets, you likely have heard about the city’s plans to build the New Albany Center for Healthy Living in the core of our town.
Scheduled for completion in 2014, this 55,000-square-foot destination anchor will be neither a recreation center nor a medical office building, though it will feature components of both. Built in partnership with The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Healthy New Albany, this center will, for the first time ever, blend medicine, fitness and wellness in one location for an entire community.
The Center for Healthy Living’s physical groundbreaking in August also represented a groundbreaking philosophical shift in how medicine will be practiced in the future in this country. This center will serve as our community health hub while complementing recreational amenities that already exist in and around town. Personalized programming will be offered along with access to a state-of-the-art fitness center. Healthy New Albany, a local grassroots nonprofit organization founded by our own Phil Heit, will manage nearly 7,000 square feet of community space inside the center while working closely with medical staff to develop community wellness programming for all ages and interests. Healthy New Albany’s vision is to create a national model for community health and, ultimately, help to make New Albany the healthiest community in the United States. Our research-based medical partners could very well help make this vision a reality.
The idea for a healthy destination in our Village Center occurred nearly three years ago as part of a plan to spur more foot traffic into the core of our town. The belief was that creating more foot traffic would ultimately facilitate more retail and service-oriented offerings in our Village Center, something many residents have desired for years. This is now coming to fruition, with The New Albany Company recently announcing plans for its Market & Main commercial development that will include office, retail and restaurant offerings. Combined, The Center for Healthy Living and Market & Main developments represent 80,000 square feet of new Village Center development.
In addition to new health offerings, our new health destination is expanding the economic vitality of our Village Center with little financial risk. The New Albany Company donated the land (with a current value of more than $3 million) and the leases signed by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital ensure a long-term cash flow to pay off bonds used to fund the project. No general fund dollars will be used to finance this facility. The city will own the building, the gathering spaces and the parking lots, and the project itself is creating jobs and other amenities so many residents have requested for the past several years.
New Albany is a special place thanks to our master planning efforts, a commitment to our community values, our ability to form lasting partnerships and, most of all, an involved citizenry who donate their time to make our town a better place to call home. All of these strengths are evident in this new endeavor that will put New Albany at the forefront of community health.
Joseph Stefanov is city manager for New Albany. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
