BRASELTON – Healthcare services continue to multiply in the Braselton area and on Thursday morning the South Hall Business Coalition held their monthly breakfast meeting at the new Highpoint Medical Campus, which first welcomed patients last summer.
The Coalition is a branch of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce and they wanted to showcase the new addition to the growing medical community in southern Hall County
The 42,000-square-feet two-story structure sits “on the highest point in Braselton” according to Frank Norton, Jr, CEO of the Norton Agency, developer of the 22-acre property at the intersection of State Routes 347 and 211.
According to project grading contractor Scott Gibbs, nearly $400,000 had to be spent on blasting work because the “highpoint” on which the campus sits is actually an offshoot of Atlanta’s Stone Mountain - which has been dubbed “the world’s largest piece of exposed granite” and is over 29-miles away.
The project is a collaborative effort between The Longstreet Clinic and the Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic.
Norton Senior Vice President Eddie Hughs says Highpoint Medical has been site-situated and constructed with future growth possibilities in mind. “It can be expanded three times at approximately 20,000-square-feet each…and there is another site which could accommodate a building of approximately 100,000-square-feet (on this) site.”
Norton said plans were already “in the works for Phase 2…an expansion out the front of the building, most likely a 20 to 25,000-square-feet expansion utilizing the same existing core space.”
Just up Friendship Road (SR 347) from Highpoint is the Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton and directly across SR 347 is recently-opened Northside Braselton. Norton said, “This is going to be a major hospital center.”
Norton said those driving by Highpoint will know its presence. “Outside we commissioned Greg Johnson (Forsyth County) to do Asclepius, which is the (Greek) god of medicine; it is the large 25-foot tall statue as you’re coming in. The City of Braselton doesn’t allow you to do a large sign, but you can put (up) a piece of sculpture.”
“What we were looking for is a landmark that would be known and is talked about in the entire community and I think we accomplished that.”
