Construction begins new psychiatric hospital
Strategic Behavioral Health kicked off construction of a new, $12 million psychiatric hospital Thursday, culminating more than a year of planning.
Willow Creek Behavioral Health, 1351 Ontario Road, will be Memphis-based Strategic Behavioral Health's 11th hospital when construction wraps up in summer 2016. Since it was founded in 2008, the company has aggressively built new hospitals to fill unmet needs for mental health and addiction services.
President Jim Shaheen said the company plans to partner with local law enforcement and hospitals as community agencies encounter individuals with mental illnesses and substance abuse issues.
"Society doesn't talk about the mental health and substance abuse needs we have in our communities. In a lot of cases, we sweep them under the rug, we let them languish in emergency rooms because there isn't somewhere for them to go," Shaheen said. "This population is marginalized. They are treated differently. Our commitment is to reduce that stigma."
The 52,000-square-foot hospital will have 72 beds, an outpatient wing, ambulance bay, offices, a geriatric wing, gymnasium, internal courtyard, pharmacy, classrooms and medical detoxification facilities.
Strategic Behavioral Health bought the 10.3-acre site from the city of Green Bay for $494,000 and will receive about $1 million in tax incremental financing district assistance to construct the hospital.
As the project went through approval, mental-health care providers and other critics argued the hospital would duplicate services already being provided in Green Bay.
Shaheen said demand for mental health services and psychiatric hospital beds in Northeastern Wisconsin was big enough to merit the project.
Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt pointed to Aurora BayCare Medical Center, located west of where Willow Creek will be built, as evidence that a new care provider's arrival doesn't destroy existing competitors.
"No one lost anything, people just gained and got better. Here today with Willow Creek, we have that same opportunity," Schmitt said. "We've got to be honest about this: There's a need for this. The county's trying. Nonprofits are trying. But we need this. And the community will benefit from a $12 million investment and the potential 200 jobs."
–jbollier@pressgazettemedia.com or follow him on Twitter @GBstreetwise
About Willow Creek Behavioral Health
Owner: Strategic Behavioral Health
Address: 1351 Ontario Road
What it does: Behavioral health, mental health and substance abuse treatment
Capacity: 72
Size: 52,265 square feet
Projected employees: 200
On the Web: www.willowcreekbh.com