A new report financed by the parent company of Washington Adventist Hospital says (are you sitting down?) will be an economic boon for eastern Montgomery County when it moves to a 48-acre site near the new Food and Drug Administration campus in White Oak.
Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University and author of the report, said at a news conference Wednesday that the hospital represented a catalyst for further economic development within the county’s planned East County Center for Science and Technology and Life Sciences Village.
Benefits include not just the $553.2 million pumped into the economy during construction but $630.8 million to the state’s economy in 2015 in “post construction operation.” The hospital would also support an additional 4,700 jobs in the area.
In non-quantitative terms, Fuller also predicted the hospital’s relocation would strengthen the surrounding markets for supporting land uses, generate investor confidence in the Science Corridor and enhance the corridor’s name and business reputation.
The current site of the hospital in Takoma Park would remain open after the move as an urgent and primary care facility.
