Gwinnett Daily Post

Staff Photo: Jason Braverman Gwinnett Medical Center has purchased the Springfield Park Shopping plaza near its main Lawrenceville campus.

LAWRENCEVILLE -- Gwinnett Medical Center has purchased a shopping center across the street from its main Lawrenceville campus, the exact purpose it will serve still to be determined.

GMC spokeswoman Beth Okun said the hospital recently purchased the Springfield Park Shopping Plaza -- at the intersection of Ga. Highway 120 and Hurricane Shoals Road -- for $3 million. The hospital system already had 88,000 square feet in the complex, hosting its resource center in the building formerly occupied by K-Mart.

The purchase more than doubles GMC's space in the complex to a total of 193,000 square feet. While hospital officials "aren't sure how it will be used at this point," it could be filled with outpatient services or administrative staff, making more room for recently expanded cardiac services on the main campus, Okun said.

"By establishing outpatient services off-campus we can focus on the utilization of the space on campus, such as cardiac, that require the immediate adjacency to the hospital's core services," Okun said.

While the majority of the shopping center is currently unoccupied, a handful of businesses persist: Monkey Joe's (an inflatable children's playground), a dentist's office, a check cashing facility, a salon, a spa and a beauty supply store.

It was unclear Tuesday what, if anything, would happen to those businesses.

The purchase did not include buildings occupied by several restaurants -- Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Applebee's -- that are in the same parking lot but are separate from the shopping center.

Okun said the hospital had been looking for expansion opportunities for some time.

"Simply put," Okun said, "GMC took advantage of an opportunity that might not exist in the future."