Piedmont Healthcare puts hold on state-of-art facility in Newnan

Piedmont Healthcare, citing the current recession, is suspending its $194 million project to build a state-of-the-art hospital in Newnan.

Piedmont officials blamed the “current instability of the debt market” in its decision to “pause” the project for the next few months.

“We had planned to go to the bond market to finance most of the project, and there’s just not a market out there now,” Piedmont spokeswoman Nina Montanaro said Thursday.

Financing the hospital now “would cost us millions more,” she said.

The 136-bed facility would replace the hospital that Piedmont currently operates in Coweta County.

Piedmont had broken ground, cleared land and done design plans for the new project, on Poplar Road at I-85.

“Our desire and intent to move forward with this important facility remains strong,” Gregory Hurst, chief operating officer of Piedmont Healthcare, said in a statement.

The scheduled opening of the hospital was early 2011. Montanaro said that Piedmont could still meet that timetable.

Piedmont completed the purchase of Newnan Hospital in March 2007. It received state permission to build a replacement facility earlier this year.

Separately, Piedmont, a nonprofit organization, announced that it has frozen all capital expenditures, with the exception of projects under way or emergency equipment needs. It’s also cutting 70 jobs at Piedmont Hospital in Buckhead.

During the economic downturn, “we’ve seen a decline in inpatient admissions,” Montanaro said. “Elective procedures are being delayed. Even ER visits are down.”

She said that Piedmont hoped to move many of the affected employees to other positions.

Besides its Buckhead and Newnan hospitals, Piedmont Healthcare includes Piedmont Fayette Hospital and Piedmont Mountainside Hospital in Jasper.