Bristol Hospital has announced detailed plans for a major expansion in downtown Bristol. It wants to build on the site of the former Bristol Center mall.
Kurt A. Barwis, the hospital’s president and CEO, said that he envisions the medical office building being a four-story, approximately 100,000-square-foot building, located at the corners of Main Street and Riverside Avenue. The building would house office numerous physician offices of the Bristol Hospital Multi-Specialty Group as well as possibly some ambulatory services such as diagnostic imaging and laboratory. The Bristol Hospital Multi-Specialty Group in 2015 hired 19 physicians in such specialties as cardiology, orthopedics and rheumatology.
Bristol Hospital hopes to buy the land and develop the building with a long-term partner. None of the financial details are being released, and no site plans or architectural renderings are available yet. The Bristol City Council will be meeting again on Dec. 28, at which time they will ask Barwis and John Leone, chairman of the Bristol Hospital Board of Directors, additional questions before any final decision is made. In 2014, the hospital submitted a proposal to the city to acquire the former Bingham School for a similar project, but the city sold the property to another developer.
In an email to employees, Barwis wrote that city officials have said publicly that they hope this will “help jumpstart” the development of the entire area.
