Midway between Austin and San Antonio sits the scenic town of New Braunfels, home to just one hospital and a growing population. Residents will have a new option come April, when the $110-million Resolute Health Hospital reaches completion. Brasfield & Gorrie is leading construction on the five-story, 364,615-sq-ft building, which sits on a 58-acre greenfield site.

"New Braunfels was selected as kind of an innovation site for the company. It's a growing area—not just New Braunfels but kind of a mini tri-city area consisting of New Braunfels, San Marcos and Seguin—so there's a great deal of increasing demographics there," says owner's representative Don Ryden, vice president-real estate at Baptist Health System. "Some of the initial studies indicated that there was a huge amount of certain inpatient out-migration for hospital care, and so with only one hospital and the growth that is projected in New Braunfels, we saw this as a good location."

But the owner's idea behind acquiring the 58-acre site was for more than just a hospital, Ryden explains. A medical office building and fitness center are going up, along with some commercial space for stores.

"The idea is to create a wellness center for what we classify as 'healthy retail' that help complement the overall strategy," Ryden adds.

This theme has carried into the look and feel of the hospital, which doesn't seem like a typical health care facility, says Brooks Rutledge, senior project manager at Brasfield & Gorrie.

"The one thing that sets us apart, and it's a credit to the architect as well, is when you walk into the lobby at Resolute Health, it feels like you're walking into a luxury hotel. The hospitality feel and theme is prevalent throughout the hospital," Rutledge says.

The hospital is designed for a two-floor vertical expansion and includes 22 emergency department exam rooms, three trauma rooms, four operating rooms, 16 intensive care unit rooms and eight NICU rooms.

No rain delay

Resolute Health is the second hospital on which Brasfield & Gorrie, Baptist Health System and design firm Earl Swensson Associates Inc. have collaborated. That continuity has helped the construction process greatly, Rutledge notes.

"For the release of the early release package and through design and construction, that was three months from turnover," he says. And the main challenge has been the 22-month, fast-track schedule for the facility. But major weather delays sought to derail plans. During Memorial Day weekend in 2013, 11 in. of rain fell in just 36 hours.