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Business & Tech

Ground Broken on Bryn Mawr Medical Arts Pavilion

The $32 million medical building will open in 14 months.

In a brief Tuesday evening ceremony hosted by Bryn Mawr Hospital President Andrea Gilbert, ground was finally broken on the long-planned $32 million Bryn Mawr Medical Arts Pavilion.

Construction on the 141,000-square foot structure, whose tenants will be Bryn Mawr Medical Specialists Association (BMMSA), Orthopaedic Specialists, ENT Associates, Main Line Fertility, The Rothman Institute, and , will begin on June 9 and is slated to be completed in 14 months.

The 825 Old Lancaster Ave. site is located across the street from the Warden Lobby entrance of Bryn Mawr Hospital in what was a 91-spot parking lot used by the hospital for valet parking. A glass-enclosed pedestrian bridge will connect the pavilion to the hospital.

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Donald Miller, M.D., a partner in BMMSA who was heavily involved in the shaping of the center, said in a press release that the facility, with its proximity to the hospital, will provide his patients a "one stop shop" for all their medical needs.

BMMSA president Robert Atkins, M.D., agreed.

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"We will have the best of both worlds for our patients and for those of us who treat them by being able to walk between our new offices and the hospital without moving a car," Atkins said.

The pavilion is also owned through a limited partnership by five of the practices that will occupy it (Bryn Mawr Hospital is not an owner of the building). Nearly half of its space will be occupied by the nine specialities that make up BMMSA.

The project had been in the works for the better part of the last decade, said Andrea Gilbert. She added that getting it to the groundbreaking phase was a difficult, but ultimately worthwhile, process.

"The vision [for the building] is better today than it was five years ago," said Gilbert. "We are working with a fabulous group of physicians, and we really have a fabulous project."

Gilbert joked that the project was, at times, what her grandmother would call mishugina—a Yiddish term that means "crazy"—but said she was pleased the hospital campus would be getting its first new freestanding construction in more than a decade.

Miller added that the process was mishugina for the practices as well as for hospital administrators.

"At times, we weren't sure we were going to get there," said Miller. "I've learned that doctors only like risk in relationship to medical procedure--they don't like it in relation to dollars. Especially not their dollars."

Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners Ward 10 representative Scott Zelov said the construction of the medical center will continue the growth of the township.

"There's so much that's happening that's good in Bryn Mawr," said Zelov, citing the library and playground renovations as well.

Zelov added that Bryn Mawr Hospital is one of 19 Bryn Mawr institutions that is more than 100 years old and suggested that the hospital's interests and the township's are closely aligned.

"I wish this to be a success for the community and for the greater region we live in," he said.

Moreland Development of Bala Cynwyd will develop the building.

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