Brunswick Novant is in talks with New Hanover Regional Medical Center to sell an outpatient surgery center Novant started building near the Autumn Hall development on Eastwood Road.

“We’re continuing to work with Novant, finalizing the next step of that project,” New Hanover Regional spokeswoman Carolyn Fisher said Friday.

In 2010, Novant Health stopped construction on a surgery center and put it on hold indefinitely, citing the down economy. Only an outer shell for the facility, intended to include two operating rooms, was built.

State regulators in July gave the local health providers the required permission for New Hanover Regional to acquire Novant’s interests in the surgical center project.

With its replacement hospital in Brunswick County a year old now, Novant apparently is pulling away from plans to cross county lines and enter the New Hanover County market.

“Novant has decided to divest all of its existing and approved projects in New Hanover County so that it can concentrate on making [Brunswick Novant Medical Center] a success,” stated the Division of Health Service Regulation ruling in July about the surgical center.

Brunswick Novant spokeswoman Amy Myers said the health system did not have any other projects currently in New Hanover County.

She said now that they have the state’s permission, Brunswick Novant is talking with New Hanover Regional about the surgical center.

“Those discussions are continuing. Nothing’s final,” Myers said.

The state first issued its certificate of need approval in 2007 for the medical facility located at Autumn Hall, a mixed-used development now under construction. The approval was given to a limited liability corporation that Novant created for the project called Same Day Surgery Center New Hanover, or SDSC New Hanover, according to the state ruling.

Because New Hanover Regional would acquire the interests in SDSC New Hanover, a new certificate of need would not have to be issued, the ruling stated.