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For the doctors of the Iowa Heart Center, moving to the heart of the West Des Moines "Medical Mile" made a lot of sense. So did the idea of owning their own facility, rather than leasing.
In a move that combines strategy with greater efficiency, the Iowa Heart Center is negotiating to buy nine acres off University Avenue on which it will build a new 83,000-square-foot clinic. The land it plans to purchase is south of University Avenue at 59th Place.
Besides enabling the practice to consolidate several facilities into one, the move would put the group within about a quarter-mile of the sites where Iowa HealthDes Moines and Mercy Medical Center each plan to eventually build West Des Moines hospitals.
The new clinic will also serve as the headquarters for the 50-physician cardiovascular medicine practice, which expects to grow to 60 doctors by the end of this year.
"It's an exciting time for cardiologists," said James Palazzo, the Heart Center's chief executive officer. "One of the reasons we've grown is that the technology has...