East Gainesville residents seeking medical care soon won't have to travel far from their neighborhoods.
Shands at UF broke ground Monday for the new UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main facility - a center that will replace Family Medicine at Fourth Avenue.
The new two-story, 24,200-square-foot center is set to open July 2012 at 1707 N Main St.
The original building on Fourth Avenue was built in 1976, right next to Alachua General Hospital.
Plans for a new building started about a decade ago as the old center was getting technologically outdated and had problems with plumbing, heating and air conditioning, said Dr. Whit Curry Jr., the chairman of the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine.
When AGH closed in 2009, this discussion process accelerated.
Curry said the new facility will be more centrally located for its patients who now must choose between visiting the Eastside Community Practice on Waldo Road or trekking to the west side of town to seek medical attention.
"The new building is right in the middle of where most of our patients come from," Curry said. "The community really needed some kind of medical facility in that area."
With 24 exam rooms - five more than at the current practice - the number of annual patients seen at the new facility could reach up to 36,000, Curry said.
The increased space will also allow UF's family medicine residency program to expand from 24 students to 30, which Curry said could directly benefit the Gainesville community.
Of the 247 graduates of the family medicine program, 72 have stayed in Gainesville to practice.
"If you go see a family physician, the chances that they came from our program are pretty high," Curry said.
Family physicians are trained in a variety of specialties so they will be able to see and treat patients of all ages and all medical conditions.
In addition to the residents, the facility on Main Street will be staffed by 10 physicians from UF's College of Medicine as well as faculty members who specialize in orthopedics and sports medicine, dermatology, prenatal care and social services.
"You can come to this new practice, and 90 percent of the time, we'll be able to take care of whatever the problem is right then and there," Curry said.
The UF&Shands Family Medicine at Main facility will be 24,200 square feet and will open in July 2012.
