Details surrounding the build of a new hospital in Atmore were discussed during a city council workshop at city hall on Monday.

Members of the Escambia County Healthcare Authority and the Atmore Community Hospital board explained the procedure they’ve gone through to try and save the current hospital and their justification for building a new one, Mayor Jim Staff said.

“They want to build a new state of the art facility, which will be a model for all of the rural communities,” Staff said. “If we do it, it will be the first. Seven or eight hospitals in Alabama are about the same shape we’re in.”

In July, the ECHA and ACH boards released a statement saying that they are ending its management contract with Infirmary Health, which manages the current hospital, and are beginning the initial process for pursuing a new healthcare facility for the Atmore Community. The existing agreement with IH is for a 365-day transition period, the release said.

“Atmore Community Hospital is facing the same challenges as other existing rural hospitals in Alabama and throughout the nation,” the boards said in the July release. “These challenges can only be improved with change to the existing model. In taking a proactive approach to the hospital’s current status, the decision was made to pursue a new facility with the guidance of a qualified team of highly respected healthcare experts (project group). There are many phases to the process of constructing a new facility, but the first phase of determining facility size, location, financing and securing a certificate of need has begun. The projected timeline for the project is two to three years.”

Staff said the board members talked about the new facility, and said that they didn’t have an architect’s rendering of it present.

“It’s going to be a 18-19 bed hospital,” he said. “It’ll have six to nine emergency room beds. Right now, there’s only a curtain between them (the emergency beds) (at ACH).”

Staff said the new facility is slated to have an outpatient surgery and clinic areas, among others.

“It’ll be basically a smaller hospital than what we have, but it’ll have more services with technology that’s used today,” he said.

Staff said the cost to build the new facility is $30 million.

When asked what the plan is to pay for the facility, he said, “that��s what is driving it out to Rivercane. The new market tax credit. That area is eligible for them.”

According to the United States Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund’s website, the new market tax credit program attracts private capital into low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making equity investments in specialized financial intermediaries called Community Development Entities (CDEs). The credit totals 39 percent of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.

On a local level, United Bank’s Community Development LLC (UBCD) offers new market tax credits.

When asked if the area behind the current hospital is suitable for a new market tax credit investment for construction, Staff said it didn’t qualify, adding that it’s a big reason why the facility may be built at Rivercane, which falls under the NMTC program.

Staff said the ECHA is requesting that the city of Atmore, which owns the Rivercane Development, give 10 acres of property for the facility. He added a deal hasn’t been done for the property.

Additionally, Staff said if the current hospital building can’t be repurposed, it’ll be turned into a green space.