Many know South 17th Street best as home to the area's flagship 823-bed hospital, Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center, because for decades it was the nearest place residents could travel for major medical services.

Following Novant Health's 2021 acquisition of the hospital, Novant committed to investing $2.5 billion to expand the region's health care infrastructure as part of the purchase agreement with New Hanover County.

That's a commitment that Laurie Whalin, president of NHRMC and acute care operations for the Novant Health Coastal Region, says the organization is well underway to completing. "We're on the trajectory of really committing to about $2 billion of that $2.5 billion in five years' time," Whalin said in February.

Novant Health is not the only major provider in the area. MedNorth has made a commitment to underserved communities, and physician-led Wilmington Health has operated locally since 1971. But Novant has helmed the expansion of medical services in the region and established itself as the region's biggest employer.

The expansion is needed as the region and surrounding counties continue to grow, Whalin said. "We really need to push services out to where people live and to our small community facilities," she said.
This year, the Cape Fear region is expected to welcome a 250,000-square-foot Novant Health hospital in Scotts Hill, an ambulatory surgery center in Leland, a midtown outpatient clinic and an expanded MedNorth campus downtown among its new health care facilities.

In February, Novant Health's board approved an additional $1 billion for future projects – including a proposed 120-bed heart and vascular patient tower on South 17th Street – signaling that the region's health care expansions are far from over.
 

Scotts Hill Campus

The 66-bed Scotts Hill hospital, set to open in June, is Novant Health's largest expansion project in the area and will fulfill an important need for residents of northern New Hanover and Pender counties, who have long had to travel to South 17th Street for care.

"With the exception of the upcoming (heart and vascular institute) tower, building a hospital from scratch is probably the biggest thing I've done," said Ken Williamson, senior design and construction manager at Novant Health, who previously worked on the glass pedestrian bridge across South 17th Street and ICU renovations at NHRMC.

The hospital has been decades in the making. According to broker Mike Nadeau, of Creative Commercial Properties, a group of physicians, under the limited liability company SENCA Properties, purchased various parcels of land in Scotts Hill in the early 2000s, amassing more than 240 acres.

In 2007, NHRMC purchased 27 acres in Scotts Hill, straddling the Pender County and New Hanover County boundaries, from SENCA Properties for $5 million, according to property records, with the intention of eventually building a hospital on the site. In 2015, NHRMC opened a 30,000-square-foot emergency department on the land to improve capacity at the 17th Street campus.

The hospital project didn't start moving forward until after Novant Health acquired NHRMC. Novant filed a certificate of need to build the community hospital in 2020, which the state approved in 2021, according to state records.

The hospital is designed to be a "one-stop destination" for health care needs with a surgical focus: It has eight operating rooms and six procedure rooms, as well as a 60,000-square-foot medical office building that opened in 2024 and includes a cancer center with medical and radiation oncology.

"Everyone's very glad to have these services nearby," said Nadeau, who lives in Hampstead just beyond Scotts Hill. "It just was always dreaded to drive down to 17th Street for everything, every visit, every appointment and every test."

Construction began in 2023, with an initial estimate of $210 million. Due to rising labor and construction costs, the price rose to $294 million, according to state filings.

"Anybody can do your regular standard construction, but when it comes to medical construction, especially acute care, there are a lot more requirements, state and federal," said Williamson. "It's an enhanced form of construction."

Williamson said the project's size also prompted the N.C. Department of Transportation to become involved to ensure minimal disruption to traffic on U.S. 17.

Including the 60,000-square-foot medical office building in Scotts Hill, which cost $48 million, overall costs are estimated at $342 million, according to a Novant Health spokesperson.

The facility has also been designed with capacity for future growth, according to Williamson, with plans to eventually build additional medical office buildings on the Pender County side of the land.

"We have a tremendous opportunity at Scotts Hill to meet the community needs," said Grant Rush, president of the Novant Health Scotts Hill Medical Center. "Not just in Scotts Hill, but our communities in Hampstead and further north."
 

In-Town Expansions

Closer to the flagship hospital on South 17th Street, Novant Health's midtown outpatient clinic is slated to open this year, and several new projects have been announced for completion in the next five to seven years.

The 153,000-square-foot outpatient clinic, located in a former Verizon call center off Shipyard Boulevard in Wilmington, is expected to open the first two floors by the end of the year, featuring a variety of services, including an OB/GYN clinic and a pharmacy. The third floor, featuring infusion therapy, is slated to open in 2027.

Pending state approval, Novant Health's recently announced $1 billion investment could bring three medical expansions to the area. The health system announced plans to construct a new 60-room physical rehabilitation hospital on Wrightsville Avenue, a new 120-bed heart and vascular (HVI) patient tower on South 17th Street and a second 80,000-square-foot heart and vascular medical office on Physicians Drive.

Additionally, Novant outlined plans to renovate two floors of NHRMC, including endoscopy and surgical services, to optimize clinical spaces.

"The HVI tower is a watershed project for the community, for sure. There's a major need for cardiovascular care," said Williamson. "It's really going to be a signature piece of the Medical Center once it's completed."
 

Downtown Capacity

Downtown Wilmington's most long-awaited medical expansion is coming this spring: After 25 years of operating at 925 North Fourth St., MedNorth is adding 35,000 square feet to its campus downtown.



"Our main focus, part of being a federally qualified health center, is to ensure access for patients that may not have access anywhere else," said Althea Johnson, CEO of MedNorth.

MedNorth has managed operations in its existing 16,000-square-foot building despite growing patient and care needs, primarily due to the high costs of expansion, Johnson said. The clinic has been renovated six times to optimize the current space creatively, said Johnson.

"We have done all we could do in 925 (North Front) besides knock the walls down," she said.

The new campus will open its doors this spring, following a grand opening on April 2, and will feature exam rooms and operatory rooms, teaching spaces and flexible clinical spaces. Thomas Construction Group announced in January that it would also begin renovations on the existing building after the new campus opens.

"We think that we will be one of the best one-stop shops in town," Johnson said.
 

Brunswick Developments

Over in the region's fastest-growing county, Novant Health is opening the doors of its 16,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center in Leland this summer. As officials plan for more facilities in the county, residents can expect more health care infrastructure closer to home.

That means more prospective work for general contractors such as Thomas Construction Group. "When I first got here, maybe 15% of our work was health care, and now we're about 50% health care as a company," said Chris Thorn, operations director at Thomas Construction Group, who joined the company in 2022. "And a lot of that has come from Novant projects."

The new ambulatory center will have two operating rooms, two procedure rooms and specialists who offer a range of surgical procedures.

"When we build a building, that's just the tip of the iceberg," Thorn said. "They need really talented people to work there – nurses, doctors – and what's so cool is the community is really banding together to keep the best talent here locally."

The county also houses Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center, which Novant Health opened in 2011 as a 74-bed facility in Bolivia to replace a previous hospital building in Supply.

To keep up with the region's growth, Novant announced in October plans to update the Bolivia hospital by adding an expanded MRI suite and a cardiac catheterization lab. That announcement also included the news that Novant filed for a certificate of need to build a new $251 million, 20-bed hospital along U.S. 74/76, as well as a freestanding emergency department near Carolina Shores.

Days apart from Novant's certificate of need filing for the hospital, Columbus Regional Healthcare System filed its own certificate of need for a 30-bed hospital in Delco, just miles from Novant's planned hospital. Both applications are awaiting state response.

Columbus Regional Healthcare, a Whiteville-based provider, has been expanding into the region since 2022 and held a groundbreaking ceremony for a 68,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center near the Brunswick Forest community in December, which Thomas Construction is building.

"Given our rapid growth as a health system, we are positioned to grow regionally as an organization while affording choice to one of the fastest growing regions in the country," Columbus Regional officials said in a statement. "Our expansion is designed to meet those rising demands."