Work is underway for a 34,000-square-foot medical office building on the campus of Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center.

Novant officials and developer Trask Land Co. marked the groundbreaking Tuesday at the center, 240 Hospital Drive NE, Bolivia.

Construction on the two-story building is expected to conclude later this year, according to Novant. LS3P is the architect and Thomas Construction Group will serve as the general contractor for the project.

"Once complete, this building will allow us to expand access to multiple medical services for rapidly growing Brunswick County," said Laurie Whalin, chief operating officer of Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center and president of Brunswick Medical Center, in an email Tuesday.

The following services are expected to grow with the addition of the second medical office building at the center:

• heart and vascular care, including cardiac rehabilitation
• family medicine
• orthopedics and sports medicine
• surgical care
• infusion center

The new building will also allow Novant to expand urology and OB/GYN services already offered in the existing building on the medical center campus.

Trask Land Co. officials announced in 2020 that they had entered into a development agreement with Novant Health for the Brunswick center's campus.

“As a lifelong resident of Southeastern North Carolina, I understand firsthand how important accessible medicine is to the more rural parts of our community, and we are excited to be a small part of Novant’s efforts to improve the reach of primary care and specialty services out to those areas,” said Raiford Trask III, president of Trask Land Co., in a news release.

Trask said the building will house five medical groups: Cape Fear Heart Associates, Oceanside Family Medicine, Novant Health Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Novant Health Cardiac Rehab and Novant Health Surgical Associates & Plastics.