The new Carle at the Riverfront project is now officially underway following a groundbreaking ceremony in Danville Thursday morning. Actually, a lot of site work has already been done by heavy equipment that has been working at the 17 acre site on the city’s west side.
Dr. James Leonard, president and CEO OF Carle Health, (shown in photo) is excited to see the work advancing…
{AUDIO: ‘’This is two to three years of planning. Actually, it’s decades as we have expanded in Danville and Vermilion County, and this portion of the state. It’s always been on the horizon of how do you improve services – how do you make sure that there are contemporary services available,’’ said Dr. Leonard. ‘’And it became clear a number of years ago that we wanted to – and needed to – make a bigger investment in this community.’’}
Danville Mayor Rickey Williams remembers when he first heard about the $70-million dollar project from the late Vickie Haugen – who was President of Vermilion Advantage when Williams took over as mayor….
{AUDIO: ‘’This has been a long time coming. I’ll never forget in one of my first meetings with Vickie she said ‘Mayor, there’s something I have to tell you about.’ So I had to sign the non-disclosure and I learned about this – more than two-and-a-half years at this point…I wish my friend could be here with us to see this. She did a lot of work to make it happen,’’ said Mayor Williams during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News.
(Mayor Williams addresses the crowd at the ceremony.)
Dr. Leonard says it will be nice having Carle’s services in Danville all on one campus….
{AUDIO: ‘’The reason one location is so important – and there’s more than one reason, but – is really efficiency. Workforce development in healthcare is extremely difficult right now – and having enough people to answer the phone and do different things. So, where we can gain efficiencies with one campus – that’s helpful. But also by having a new building it allows us to bring in the most contemporary technology.’’}
And Dr. Leonard expects Carle will expand the services it offers in Danville once Carle at the River Front is completed. He says construction is expected to take twelve to eighteen months, so it will likely not be completely done until 2023.
Carle will be relocating its North Vermilion and West Fairchild Street facilities to the new site. The new 17 acre campus will be surrounded by Robinson Street on the east, just west of Logan Avenue on the west, North Street on the south, and Madison Street on the north.
