Mercy planning Hiawatha Medical Park

HIAWATHA - A three-story medical building planned for Hiawatha will include an ambulatory surgery center and an eye care clinic.

Brainiac Inc. of Cedar Rapids, owned by Dr. Chad Abernathey, is adding two stories to a single-story building at 1195 Boyson Road. The structure, with a tent-like white roof, was most recently occupied by Duffy's Collectible Cars.

Abernathey said the Mercy Hiawatha Medical Park will be an 80,000-square-foot building with multiple tenants.

'It will be an imposing building,” Abernathey said. 'We expect to start construction after RAGBRAI has left the community.”

Tim Charles, president and CEO of Mercy Medical Center, said the hospital will lease the third floor of the Hiawatha Medical Park for an outpatient surgery center that is expected to open in the spring of 2016.

'The needs and wants of our patients are evolving,” Charles said. 'The push for many years has been more and more treatment being done on an outpatient basis in a distinctly ambulatory environment.

'Our customers want to drive up, have less acute procedures, and go home the same day.”

Charles said discussions are underway to provide additional services on the first floor of the building as an extension of clinic services.

Kevin Swartz, chief executive officer of Wolfe Eye Clinic, said the practice is working out final details to move its Cedar Rapids office from 1245 Second Ave. SE to the second floor of the Hiawatha Medical Park. Swartz said the Hiawatha location appeals to the practice because of its location.

Abernathey said the tent-like roof will be removed after construction has begun on the two additional floors of the building. He said the same Teflon-coated material was used to create the roof of the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis.

'It's a very strong material with each layer the thickness of a credit card,” Abernathey said. 'When the roof of the Metrodome collapsed in December 2010, the public was able to get pieces for a variety of uses. It kept a significant amount of material out of the landfill.”