A little more than a year after its inception, Avita Heath Systems’ Ontario location celebrated its grand opening on Friday evening.
Building contractors, the Avita Health Systems board, members of the Ontario Growth Association, and area business owners as well as members of the public were invited to tour the entire first phase of the Avita Ontario project.
Kelby King, Community Relations and Marketing Manager for Avita Health Systems, explained the building’s grand opening includes 27 medical providers and ancillary services such as pharmacy, laboratory, and MRI, CT, X-Ray, and Mammography imaging.
Giveaways, refreshments, self-guided tours, and free screenings were available to guests, and an appearance from Miss Ontario and performance by the Ontario High School Show Choir rounded out the evening.
“The public is so excited walking in here to see it, and I’m excited to see what it grows into,” said King. “There are a lot of possibilities of what this place could turn into. And honestly I’m really excited for the mall; I’m hoping we can be a benefit to the traffic into the mall and the other retail and shopping district.”
Avita Health Systems first purchased the 185,000 square-foot former Lazarus building at the Richland Mall in October 2013. King stated demolition of the site began in November 2013, and construction began in April 2014.
“It’s only been eight months from the time we started constructing to now when the first phase is complete,” said King. “We had this (completion) date pegged from the very beginning, and we knew it was an aggressive timeline but they did it.”
Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson stated he periodically visited the new Avita building during demolition, but purposefully stayed away during construction to not spoil the surprise.
“It’s truly amazing the transformation between before and now,” said Hutchinson. “It helps all of Richland County because you’ve got increased traffic, the doctors and professional staff – they recruited from outside the area so they have doctors coming here from other parts of the state. That’s fantastic when you can bring all that in.”
Hutchinson noted the grand opening of Avita is just one of many grand openings in the Ontario area the past year. He added many more grand openings are expected in 2015.
“We’re taking all the growth we can get,” said Hutchinson. “This is fantastic for professional jobs, but we’ll take any type of job. When you bring all these professional jobs in, you need the retail and the restaurants to support the professional jobs. We’re very excited about that.”
Cardiology, family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, vascular medicine, pain management, plastic and reconstructive surgery, ENT, and audiology are among the additional medical specialties housed in Avita’s initial phase of development. The office of family medicine Dr. Julie Beard moved into their new location just last Wednesday, and Lisa Pasqualini, RN said the first week of operation has been great.
“It gives easier access to some of our patients because they know where the mall is, they know where we are,” said Pasqualini. “I think it’s great that we’re right here where all the shopping is.”
Beard’s Office Manager Jessi Ganson pointed out the adjacency to the mall is beneficial to all involved.
“I think one of the most unique things that we’re doing is we’re giving buzzers out to the patients so they can go shop and come back when we say it’s time to come back,” said Ganson. “And being together as a community here at Avita I think is great.”
“I think one of the most unique things that we’re doing is we’re giving buzzers out to the patients so they can go shop and come back when we say it’s time to come back,” said Jessi Ganson.
