Loveland's Spine Institute to Build Surgery Center

New 15,000-square-foot facility will open next summer in Johnstown's 2534 development

By Craig Young, Reporter-Herald Staff Writer           Read the original story in the Loveland Reporter-Herald

A Loveland medical clinic specializing in spine surgery and research has bought land for a new surgery center in Johnstown.

The Spine Institute at Rocky Mountain Associates in Orthopedic Medicine purchased property in the 2534 development southeast of the Interstate 25-U.S. 34 interchange. The 1.8 acres sold Oct. 16 for $385,000.

The company moved its office to a building in 2534 a month ago, according to practice manager Dee Goodman, and then bought the adjacent property for its new Spine and Orthopedic Surgery Center.

"Our goal is to be breaking ground soon," she said, with plans to open the surgery center in July 2013.

"We'll be specializing in research, pain management, spine surgeries and biologics (adult stem cell treatments)," she said.

The nearly 15,000-square-foot surgery center will have three operating rooms and six convalescent rooms allowing patients to stay up to 72 hours after surgery, Goodman said.

Drs. Kenneth Pettine and Jeffrey Donner formed Rocky Mountain Associates in Orthopedic Medicine in 1991 and the Spine Institute in 2004. The practice recently moved from North Grant Avenue in Loveland to 4795 Larimer Parkway in the 2534 development.

Rocky Mountain Associates employs about 25 people, including six physicians, according to Goodman, and plans to add another doctor in the near future.

The practice's owners speak nationally and internationally on innovative noninvasive spine technologies, according to the company's website, and Pettine is the co-inventor of an artificial replacement disc.

Goodman said the company chose the 2534 location because of the growth occurring there and the easy access to the interstate. "We have patients who come from all over," she said, including Denver, Colorado Springs, Wyoming and other states.

"They've heard of our spine surgeons and that they specialize in different spine cases," she said, "and we're involved in several different research studies."

The Spine Institute's new locations are directly south of Northern Colorado Long Term Acute Hospital, Northern Colorado Rehabilitation Hospital and Gonyon Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery and about a mile east of the new Kaiser Permanente clinic.

Ryan Schaefer, president of Chrisland Commercial Real Estate, which represented the seller of the land to the Spine Institute, said developers in 2534 have a goal of attracting medical facilities.

"Once the rehab hospital located there, that really created a catalyst for other medical practices to locate there," he said.

He said the Spine Institute's move to 2534 is indicative of the resurgence in the commercial and residential real estate industry that's taking hold in Northern Colorado.

"We're starting to see a rebound," Schaefer said. "It's fairly widespread."

He said the 542-acre 2534 development also is attracting the attention of retailers and primary employers, and he predicted being able to make announcements by the middle of next year.

Craig Young can be reached at 635-3634 or cyoung@reporter-herald.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CraigYoungRH.