In a move to enhance the care and services it provides to the Atlantic City community, AtlantiCare announced it will build a $38 million, 65,000-square-foot medical arts facility.

The announcement was made after the New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority gave its preliminary approval to grant AtlantiCare the land, plus $15 million toward the project.

The site is located at the corner of Ohio and Atlantic Avenues across the street from AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center’s Atlantic City Campus.

“This facility and all those who will work there will help us continue to ensure our patients and customers have access to the quality care they need and deserve,” said Lori Herndon, president and CEO of AtlantiCare, in a statement. “We are grateful the CRDA recognized the value of the care we provide and our need for more space as we grow these vital services. With the CRDA’s preliminary approval, we will initiate planning for the facility.”

Herndon added that AtlantiCare is privileged to care for the Atlantic City community.

“We are especially excited about expanding our services on Ohio Avenue where we opened as Atlantic City’s first hospital in a house in 1898.”

AtlantiCare plans to include the following programs and services in the new facility: Medical education classrooms to expand educational opportunities for graduate medical residents and undergraduate students; a new location for, and expansion of, AtlantiCare’s Maternal/Fetal Medicine Program, which is currently located at the William L. Gormley AtlantiCare HealthPlex at 1401 Atlantic Ave.; an Urgent Care Center to meet the urgent care needs of those who are uninsured and underinsured; other AtlantiCare clinical programs and services; and a floor dedicated to Fresenius Kidney Care Boardwalk, with whom AtlantiCare has a joint venture to provide dialysis care.

AtlantiCare anticipates planning, approvals, and construction to take approximately two years, pending final approval from the CRDA.