New life for an old building
ROCK HILL – The long-dormant Frontier Insurance complex has new life, literally and figuratively. The Center for Discovery, based in Sullivan County, has purchased the facility and in two years, will launch a Children’s Specialty Hospital and Research Institute for Brain and Body Health.
CfD President and CEO Patrick Dollard told about 75 guests, including county and municipal officials, that this creates a new assessment opportunity.
“We’ve developed a certain sophistication over the many years here to really look at underlying complexities inside disability and disease so this hospital will afford us the licensing to really do biomedical deeper dives and understanding of what are the underlying complexities causing what we often see.”
Dollard said the long-term goal is to implement “groundbreaking new models” of care for complex situations. Through innovation, the CfD team developed a platform that assists wheelchair-bound people in difficult situations, including boarding airplanes.
“It’s a human right to be able to move. That’s what comes out this staff that we have here. And then they invented it. And then, Google gave us millions to manufacture it and get it out.”
Plans for the Frontier building include an education academy on the first floor, the Children’s Specialty Hospital in the second and the Research Institute on the third.
Playing a role in making this possible are the Town of Thompson and the Sullivan County IDA.
County Legislator Ira Steinberg, who chairs the IDA, said there will be a “snowball” economic impact with this project. There will also be a significant gain for the state.
“This is going to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the state on having the facility here and not having to send them out, besides the emotional of the family dealing with traveling and not being close to their child,” Steingart said
Target date for opening the facility is September 2020. That will give architects and engineers time to reconfigure the building that is in good physical shape despite over a decade of dormancy.
Key players (L-R): Town of Thompson Superevisor
William Rieber, Steingart, Dollard, Associate Executive Director Dr. Terry Hamilin
