News

DOWNTOWN ROUNDUP: Blue Ridge Health to move offices to King Street

Blue Ridge Health will move about 50 administrative and office jobs to North King Street.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 1, 2018

Downtown will be home on weekdays to 50 administrators and office workers, thanks to a large nonprofit health care agency's need for more space.

Blue Ridge Community Health Services last month purchased the 11,000-square-foot building on North King Street at Fifth Avenue and will begin moving workers in as soon as it completes repairs and renovations.
“Blue Ridge Health has grown tremendously in the past few years,” said Dr. Richard Hudspeth, CEO of Blue Ridge Health. “We needed additional space. Some of our administrative space is in our clinical space and we need to keep our clinical space for the demand we’re seeing. Really all our service lines — pediatrics, family medicine, behavioral health, dental and pharmacy — are expanding. We explored a lot of different options and this was really the best one.”
He expects the agency to move 40 to 50 people into the space. The property has 50 parking spaces so having a new employer downtown won’t add to the central business district parking crunch. The agency bought the property last month from Boyd L. “Bub” Hyder for $1.7 million.
“I think it’s good news for Henderson County,” Hudspeth said. “I think it’s a good thing for downtown. This was a space that really works well for us.”
A business that adds workers within walking distance of Main Street always helps downtown, said Lew Holloway, the city's downtown development coordinator.
“It adds more employees right in the downtown district coming downtown to take advantage of shopping and food,” he said. “Those are great jobs to have in that kind of proximity to downtown. I’m sure that was one of the factors in choosing the property. We think of that as a win and a great addition to the downtown area. We really do have a tremendous health care economy downtown and it’s another example of while not everybody lives in the city of Hendersonville a lot of people really do work there.”