COLONIE – The new 30,000-square-foot Albany Medical Center facility on land that was for years home to the old Michael’s Banquet House will also include offices for the Bone & Joint Center/Capital Region Orthopaedics staff.
As the $9.1 million project worked its way through the planning process the building was, and still is, to be home to Albany Med’s ninth EmUrgentCare, to offer emergency medical treatment, and offices to provide internal medicine and pediatrics and sports medicine.
The addition of the Bone & Joint Center was announced at the groundbreaking on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
“We have been working for a number of years for a new home for a very important group at Albany Medical Center, our internal medicine and pediatrics, which provides a good amount of primary care for people in Latham,” said Dr. Fred Venditti, executive vice president for system care and deliver and Albany Med’s general director. “This is an important location for us. We will offer primary care for children and adults and we are happy to have our partners at the orthopaedic group join us as well.”
Dr. David Quinn, of the Bone & Joint Center, said his organization has been teaming up with Albany Med since 1998 and with BBL, the company building the facility, since the early 1990s.
“Our offices will be staffed by two orthopaedic surgeons and their supporting personnel and facilities, including X-ray services,” he said.
While the official groundbreaking was Tuesday, the contractor, BBL, has been busy and more than half of the concrete foundation is already in the ground.
The public officials who spoke at the event conveyed personal experiences with the hospital, the Bone & Joint Center and/or Michael’s, a banquet house that operated at the Route 9 location for years.
Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Colonie, said his family was on vacation in Virginia when his daughter broker her arm. They could not find a qualified surgeon in that area so they drove her back to Albany Med where Quinn fixed her up.
“And she went on to have a college tennis career,” Steck said. “This isn’t just about bricks and mortar, there are real people involved here.”
County Executive Dan McCoy and Colonie Supervisor Paula Mahan also recounted stories of getting patched back up at the Bone & Joint Center while Laura Dehmer, the vice president of the Capital Regional Chamber of Commerce, said she had her wedding reception at Michael’s in 1979.
“The building was tired, this is a fantastic location and we are grateful for Albany Medical Center to make this happen,” said Richard Rosen, vice president and partner of Columbia Development Companies, the developer behind the project. “It was a long process but I really feel the process resulted in a better project.”