VA to build new medical campus at Atlanta's Fort McPherson

The government plans to spend $40 million transforming 10 acres and six buildings at south Atlanta's Fort McPherson into a healthcare campus that would expand services for veterans and relieve pressure on metro area clinics that now serve them. Details of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' plan come as the military continues preparations to shut down Fort McPherson in mid-September as part of the years-old "Base Realignment and Closure" program. Less than 150 workers are still on the largely vacant post now. The VA redevelopment will not affect hopes of turning other parts of the 488-acre post into mixed-use development complete with a science and technology park, houses, restaurants and shops. The VA will renovate a vacant 74,000-square-foot brick building that once was a health clinic for troops and turn it into an outpatient clinic for veterans. It is to include primary medical care, mental health, dental, lab, radiology and audiology services. An eye-care center could also be opened at some point later in the former Lawrence Joel U.S. Army Health Clinic.