Thanks to good weather, Sutter Gould’s center in Turlock on track to open in August

Thanks to agreeable weather for builders this winter, a $23 million health care center for Sutter Gould Medical Foundation remains on track to open in August.

The walls are up and construction continues at Golden State Boulevard and West Christoffersen Parkway, where Sutter Gould designed the 37,000-square-foot center to provide primary care and other health services at a more visible location. A 63-year-old medical office at East Main Street and Colorado Avenue has served patients since 1993.

The project will replace the old office and give Sutter Gould a lot of room for expansion.

“Turlock is a great community and it’s time for us to upgrade our facilities,” said Sutter Gould spokesman Craig Baize. “We will have room for growth and it’s an opportunity to have care for patients in a new facility.”

Construction should be completed in mid-July, with an opening planned in August. Escalon-based C.T. Brayton & Sons Inc. is constructing the facility for Sutter Gould. Two acres of undeveloped ground will be reserved for future growth.

Sutter Gould’s 10 physicians in Turlock will move their practices to the new two-story center. Baize said the facility eventually will have 25 to 30 physicians for patients needing specialty, pediatric, internal medicine and primary care.

The center also will have urgent care, laboratory and radiology services, and ample parking. Sutter Gould will add four more primary care doctors and will have 30 support staff at the center when it opens, Baize said.

Sutter Gould previously said the project was planned a few years before the recession in 2008, which resulted in widespread job losses and people losing health benefits. Blue Diamond has since opened a Turlock plant and the economic recovery is expected to spur demand for health care.

As health services are developed in Turlock, about 100 employees could work for Sutter Gould at the center.

This story was originally published January 3, 2014 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Thanks to good weather, Sutter Gould’s center in Turlock on track to open in August."