An $8 million medical office complex is being proposed where the last remaining traces of Spreckels Sugar stand in the form of the plant’s old office complex
Dr. Amarjit Dhaliwal announced Wednesday his intentions to build the Valley Medical & Health Center on 2.5 acres west of the Valley Cancer Center on Norman Drive west of Spreckels Avenue. Dhaliwal built the two-story, $14 million Valley Cancer Center.
Preliminary plans have been completed and are expected to go before the Manteca Planning Commission within 60 days for their review and approval.  Dhaliwal expects to break ground on the project within the next six months.
“We want to be pro-growth and provide better medical services for our area,” Dhaliwal said. “We’re looking at providing a good urgent care center within the facility and a good convenient set of offices for incoming physicians who would be close to the hospital and to other physicians. The new facility will be the medical focal point in this whole area within three buildings totaling 29,000 to 30,000 square feet of space.”
He said he expects the new center to be operational by September or October of 2018. 
In addition to the offices he has other options that include a dedicated pain management center and interventional radiology suites, saying he is trying to bring the best and better services to the community.  Another option for the medical and health center would be a good sleep center for those having difficulties in have restful nights’ sleep. 
Dhaliwal said Doctors Hospital Ike Mmeje is very supportive of his new project. 
Doctors Hospital last year opened a $7 million outpatient surgical center just north of the Valley Cancer Center to take pressure off the hospital’s main surgery suites and increase convenience for those having outpatient procedures.  The 6,000-square-foot building would include three operating rooms and two procedure rooms.
Dhaliwal’s newest project further solidifies the Norman Drive location as being a hub for medical care in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop. The hospital has its imaging center there that’s part of two other medical office complexes that also includes a pharmacy.
It is roughly four blocks from the main Doctors Hospital campus.

To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.