Four new medical buildings are in the works in East Bakersfield. The developer for the Rio Bravo Medical Center off 178 and Morning Drive expects to expand to five medical buildings by the end of next year.
Neighbors in the area that 23 ABC talk to said they're eager for the expansion to open.
Elizabeth Lynch said, "It's a great idea because there's so many people out here to service and we don't have to drive like twenty miles."
Dan Wilson said, "So anything out this way is good, it's a good thing for us."
The Rio Brave Medical Center currently has a 65,000 square foot cancer and imaging center open. By the end of 2019 the developer says they plan adding four more buildings, doubling their existing cancer and surgery center, adding a fifty bed acute rehab hospital and about 35,000 of medical office space.
Gary Bruno is the developer for the project and said, "It's designed to complement the existing medical in the community. The entire campus is. The intent is to move the medical care closer to the northeast."
For neighbors like Wilson and Lynch, who said they both have used the current medical offices at the Rio Bravo Medical Center, they like the idea of their services expanding.
"If it's like the other parts that's already up there, there won't be a wait," said Wilson
"For women that have to go get a yearly check up i just have to drive three miles away instead of twenty," said Lynch.
Bruno also said the project will also have about sixteen acres of retail space. And neighbors tell me they have a list of ideas for what they'd like to see move in with the medical buildings.
Wilson said, "A Winco. Yeah, a Winco, a Trader Joe's, In N Out Burger. I could keep going."
While Bruno said he won't be a part of who moves in to that retail space, he does expect at least a pharmacy to move in because of how close it will be to the medical center.
