{"id":987240,"date":"2026-08-07T18:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/987240\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:00:18","slug":"lee-county-moves-closer-to-new-medical-center-after-years-of-roadblocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/987240\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County moves closer to new medical center after years of roadblocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LEE COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) \u2014 The Lee County Development Authority took a major step forward, confirming it is in the final stages of financing for a new medical center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials said they expect to break ground on the highly anticipated facility in the first quarter of 2027. Local leaders said the new medical center will not only directly serve the local community but also act as a key healthcare partner to all existing medical providers in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This milestone comes after a decade of significant roadblocks. First introduced in June 2016, the project faced years of delays, primarily due to Georgia\u2019s strict Certificate of Need (CON) healthcare permit rules, legal contests from regional healthcare competitors and the initial lack of an operator. The momentum shifted in early 2024 when state lawmakers loosened healthcare licensing regulations, and local boards officially voted to revive the development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With financing now nearing completion, county leaders said they are closer than ever to turning the long-awaited project into a reality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walb.com\/2026\/08\/07\/lee-county-moves-closer-new-medical-center-after-years-roadblocks\/mailto:walb-digitalproducers@gray.tv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.walb.com\/2026\/08\/07\/lee-county-moves-closer-new-medical-center-after-years-roadblocks\/mailto:walb-digitalproducers@gray.tv\" target=\"_blank\">Let us know.<\/a> Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WALBNews10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/walbnews10\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/walbnews10\/\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WALBNews10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WALBNews10\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a>. For more South Georgia news, download the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/walb-news-10\/id449395459\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/walb-news-10\/id449395459\" target=\"_blank\">WALB News app<\/a> and add WALB as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.walb.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.walb.com\" target=\"_blank\">preferred source<\/a> on Google. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WALB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) \u2014 The Lee County Development Authority took a major step forward, confirming it is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":987241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[63676,210,1141,1142,43509,395914,395910,395911,92544,395912,395913,395916,395915,395918,67,132,68,343704,340085,179470,395917],"class_list":["post-987240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-certificate-of-need","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-lee-county","tag-lee-county-development-authority","tag-lee-county-ga","tag-lee-county-georgia","tag-leesburg","tag-leesburg-ga","tag-leesburg-georgia","tag-new-medical-center-in-lee-county","tag-new-medical-center-in-leesburg","tag-quinlan-parker","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-walb","tag-walb-news","tag-walb-news-10","tag-walb-quinlan-parker"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}