Inside the future Chiefland Health Center before renovations begin.

While the coronavirus has been the focus the last few months, we’re focused on continued growth on the Nature Coast.

Two businesses are closing in on opening dates, with a code-named project days from starting up, while a long-demanded medical need will soon be fulfilled in Chiefland. Project Charleston is moving into the former Williston Door location off State Road 121 and will start production this month.

The company — relocating its plastics extrusion operations from Pennsylvania — will bring more than a dozen high-wage paying jobs when it opens in the next week or so. When the business opens, we will provide a future update with its name and the one-of-its-kind product it will be manufacturing.

The Chiefland Health Center is opening in the former HPH Hospice off US Highway 19, south of the Chiefland High School. The center will offer primary care and urgent care services, including MRI and CT scans, with a plan of eventually becoming a 10-bed rural community hospital with surgical suites. In the short term, the location will be able to triage critical care patients, stabilizing them before transport to level 1 trauma centers.

Doctor Ravindra Kolaventy, MD — the Ocala cardiologist behind the project — believes everything for the center will be ready by June, after a recent meeting with an architect to consider renovations. He says part  of the plans include offering subscription-based affordable health plans to patients that would be less than $100 a month per person.

The plan would cover a range of services provided at the center.