Dr. George Zlupko had never spent as much as the $4 million it cost his partnership recently to build the new Lung Disease Center of Central Pennsylvania on Chestnut Avenue downtown.
"I can't say it didn't give me a lot of sleepless nights," Zlupko said this week of the project, which he dedicated Friday with a ribbon-cutting.
Not to worry too much, however. If the monetary commitment induces too much insomnia, Zlupko can seek help within, because in addition to the offices of his Altoona Lung Specialists, a CT scanner and other diagnostic tools, the facility contains a sleep lab.
It's no accident that Zlupko and associates built a facility that doesn't suffer by comparison to the new Altoona Water Authority building on the next block.
"It's not designed to be imposing, necessarily," Zlupko said. "[But] we want our patients to recognize that we're not just some back room operation."
The structure is the latest brick in the growing edifice of "eds and meds" - educational and medical facilities - in the greater downtown.
Education growth
in downtown
On the eds side, it's virtually all Penn State Altoona.
That began about 13 years ago, when Altoona Blair County Development Corp. convened a meeting of area university officials, suggesting they build classrooms for adult education, according to ABCD Executive Vice President Patrick Miller.
Up to that time, they had classes mainly at the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center or Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School, Miller said.
None took the suggestion, except Penn State Altoona.
"[But] Penn State jumped on it," Miller said.
It started modestly, however.
The corporation first pushed the vacant former county welfare building on 16th Street, but the city took that for its police station, as a corollary to the renovation of City Hall, the station's old location.
College CEO Allen Meadors then looked to the former Playhouse Theater, also vacant, and soon entered a lease-purchase agreement with the corporation to develop classrooms in the lower theater, while keeping the upper one intact, Miller said.
Around the same time, the college also began to rent office space in the second floor of the Heritage Discovery Center two doors down for staff.
In subsequent years, under Chancellor Lori Bechtel-Wherry, the college launched three more initiatives downtown.
Under a similar lease-purchase agreement with the corporation, the college developed the five-story Aaron Building - which stands between the Playhouse (now Devorris Downtown Center) and the Discovery Center - eventually creating classrooms in the basement, staff offices and a cafe on the first floor, continuing education on the second, a communications production suite on the third, a nursing simulation lab on the fourth and sleeping suite and reception space for VIP guests on the top floor.
The college then transformed the former WRTA radio station next to the Discovery Center into the Kazmaier Family Building to house development and alumni relations staff.
And in a third lease-purchase arrangement with the corporation, the college is nearly finished transforming the former Meyer Jonasson building on 11th Avenue into the Sheetz Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence, with a parklet on the adjacent lot where the Kaufman Wedding World Buildings once stood.
"I don't think we ever envisioned we would quite get to this point," except in what would then have been wishful thinking, Miller said of the Penn State presence downtown.
Medical side
also expanding
On the meds side, the biggest player has been Altoona Regional Health System.
Predecessor institution Altoona Hospital has always had its main location in the greater downtown, which has also been host to many medical offices through the years. That includes Blair Medical Center across Howard Avenue from the hospital and the Parcel One offices at 12th Avenue and 17th Street, both home to many doctors' offices.
But the trigger for the current medical surge occurred 11 years ago when ABCD suggested that health system subsidiary Blair Medical Associates, which was looking for a new location, consider part of the space in Station Mall recently vacated by Ames.
"One thing led to another," Miller said.
A for-profit partnership that includes the hospital has since developed the former retail mall into the Station Medical Center, which now includes Blair Medical Associates, Mainline Medical Associates, Allegheny Pain Management, University Orthopedics and the hospital's main outpatient services center.
That includes physical medicine and rehabilitation, occupational medicine, lab services, cardiac rehab, a sleep lab, surgical pre-testing, neurology testing and imaging.
At the time of the original suggestion to Blair Medical Associates, ABCD didn't imagine such a "complete transformation" of the old mall, Miller said.
But plenty more has happened and is still happening.
In 2001, the hospital created a new trauma center on the Altoona campus, and in 2003, it opened a freestanding outpatient surgery center nearby.
It's currently working on consolidation of all acute care at the Howard Avenue location, a project that includes expansion of the emergency department, development and acquisition of the former Altoona Center for mental health services, information technology, central scheduling, printing and "charge integrity."
Combination of two drawing cards
The eds and meds shorthand has been around for years, and communities all over the country have targeted those sectors of the economy for redevelopment, especially where there are large health providers and a university already nearby, as in Altoona, Miller said.
The revitalization of a struggling downtown retail mall through an ed or a med transformation has also occurred in many other communities, he said.
The latest meds project here - Zlupko's - has helped to transform the Chestnut Avenue segment of downtown, with the help of the Water Authority building, according to Miller.
"Dr. Zlupko had a vision," one that helped turn around an "eyesore block," he said.
The doctor group moved out of a 3,600-square-foot office a block and a half away. The new building has 15,000 square feet, four times more.
The bigger facility has enabled the group to add services it couldn't have otherwise, including a sleep lab, a CT scanner, a research unit and lab services such as pulmonary function testing, Zlupko said.
The project also added seven jobs - a practice manager, two registered sleep technicians, respiratory therapist, X-ray technician, clinical research coordinator and receptionist.
When Zlupko's partnership - his practice also comprises Drs. Craig Hartman, Tim Lucas and Alan Kanouff - bought the ground, he didn't know the Water Authority was planning to build on the next block.
That building is a lucky accident that has added "prestige and value to our location," Zlupko said.
The group never considered relocating from downtown, largely because it's conveniently close to the hospital, where the doctors still work "a good bit," Zlupko said.
The group borrowed $2 million from Mainline Bank, $1.6 million through the Small Business Administration for 20 years and provided the remaining 10 percent of the $4 million funding, according to Zlupko and Miller.
The development of eds and meds in the greater downtown area "makes all the sense in the world, given that medicine and education are two sectors of economic growth," said hospital spokesman Dave Cuzzolina.
"It's a wonderful thing to see another commitment," on the medical side, said Shari Routch, director of university relations for Penn State Altoona.
Penn State Altoona shares the vision of Altoona Regional and Zlupko's group that it's essential to make a commitment to invest in downtown, Routch said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
