Surgical Healing Arts Center and Metro Alliance Surgery Center are combining for a $14 million construction project in south Fort Myers.
Stevens Construction broke ground on 20,764-square-foot medical office building and surgery center at 6201 Alliance Lane, off Metro Parkway.
For about the last decade, Dr. Moses Shieh, founder of the practice, has been planning to expand it. He specializes in bariatric surgeries such as gastric bypass and gastric sleeve surgeries, which reduce the size of a patient’s stomach and help them lose weight.
“A patient will lose 100 pounds in less than a year,” Shieh said. “After the weight-loss surgery, we do body contouring surgery if they have a lot of excess skin remaining.”
The new surgery center should be ready in the first quarter of 2024. It will have a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, which promotes faster healing.
The second floor will house Metro Alliance Surgery Center, which will have three operating rooms, a procedure room and two overnight beds for recovering patients.
“This is like a dream come true for me in so many ways,” Shieh said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “I’m very appreciative of everyone who plays a part in this journey with us. And it is a journey.”
The journey to construction included trucking in 1,200 loads of dirt, just to prepare the low-lying land.
Mark Stevens, founder of Stevens Construction, said his company takes these additional costs into account when meeting with potential clients. The costs of preparing land for construction in Southwest Florida will continue to rise, with most of the prime lots already taken, Stevens said.
The land preparation alone cost about $1 million, he said.
“The remaining properties, there’s a lot of issues you have to deal with on them,” Stevens said. “When people are looking to build something, they need some expertise. We put all the numbers together and put the whole team together.”
