DDA Enters into Negotiations for DMC Outpatient Facility

The Royal Oak Downtown Development Authority (DDA) took the first steps for entering the Detroit Medical Center's (DMC) proposal to build a $50 million outpatient facility into the city's bureaucracy late Wednesday afternoon.

A handful residents showed up at the DDA meeting at City Hall, where seven of the 15 public comment speakers offered objections to Detroit Medical Center’s (DMC) plan for the proposed 97,000 square-foot development.

The property the DMC is interested in is the vacant 4.15-acre parcel at Interstate 696 and Woodward, which is owned by the DDA.

Residents expressed worries about ambulances roaring up and down Woodward Avenue night and day, traffic jams and the aesthetics of the project, particularly from the vantage point of the condominiums to the north of the site.

"This is the first time I've heard objections before I made my presentation," joked Dr. Herman Gray, president of Children’s Hospital of Michigan, who addressed many of the concerns in a multi-person presentation.

About the plan

What interests the DMC most about the Royal Oak site is “location, location, location,” Gray said.

“This site will allow us to better serve the families of our patients, who are hesitant, for whatever reason to drive to Detroit,” Gray said. The DMC is interested in serving patients, not forcing them to do something they are not interested in, he said.

Points the DMC addressed at the presentation included:

• The facility will be an ambulatory center, similar to the DMC Surgery Hospital in Madison Heights, which has an average of one ambulance run a month.
• There is no trauma center. "We don't deal with knife stabbings. Ambulance drivers know where to take such patients," Gray said.
• Beaumont's Emergency Room is one of the busiest in the state. Woodward carries a lot of ambulance runs now.
• Two-thirds of the visitors are expected to be children and their parents.
• State law mandates that the facility can serve only Oakland County residents.
• The average wage for employees is $50,000. The center would employ 155 full-time workers.
• Many Royal Oak residents are employees of DMC.
• The site is large enough to accommodate a broad number of specialist, four operating rooms and rehab services, such as physical therapy.
• There will be ample parking, more spaces than required by code, Gray said. If the architects have to lift the structure and have parking beneath the building, they will do so, he said.
• The DMC provides its own security using sworn officers, inside and outside, and it works with local police. The most frequent issues they would expect on the well-lit and camera-monitored parking areas are trips-and-falls and traffic accidents.

Project moves forward

After a little procedural haggling, the DDA unanimously passed three resolutions that authorize fact-finding, having the land appraised, and entering negotiations.

“We are very pleased the DDA voted to proceed,” Gray said Wednesday evening. “We’re very hopeful this will result in a positive outcome.”

Gray says Beaumont Health System’s objections that the duplication of services between the two medical centers will create unnecessary capacity that will drive up health care costs are unfounded.

“We believe when you have competition, costs go down, not up,” he said.

Gray envisions Royal Oak becoming a medical community. "If everything goes well, our experience is this type of project takes 15-18 months of construction," he said.

“I would be surprised if this project took more than two years to complete,” he said.

Correction: The proposed development is 97,000 square-foot.