AIHF

Published April 18, 2003 in The News & Observer
Author: Sarah Lindenfeld Hall; Staff Writer
Edition: Final Section: News Page: B1

RALEIGH -- Imagine a place where you can visit your family doctor, work out with a personal trainer and relax with a massage and body wrap, all in one stop.

That's what a former Rex Hospital executive, the head medical physician for the Carolina Hurricanes and a local developer hope to build -- a $30 million, 168,000-square-foot center on about 16 acres near Lead Mine Road in North Raleigh.

The request to rezone the land for offices was filed with city planners Thursday, in time for the City Council and Planning Commission to consider it at a public hearing July 15.

The tract, now zoned for four homes per acre, includes 4.3 acres that were part of the 56-acre Copperleaf project, which the council denied last year after vehement opposition from several North Raleigh neighborhoods.

The council granted a waiver of the normal two-year waiting period for the 4.3 acres so the new zoning case could be submitted. The people behind the project said they have already met with some adjacent property owners to discuss their plans, which include connecting Forum Drive.

Paul Woolverton, president of the nearby Greystone neighborhood association and a member of the steering committee that protested the Copperleaf project on what is known as Wayward Farm, said residents will closely watch the proposal.

"As we had the interest with the farm previously, we'll have an interest with what's going on there," Woolverton said. "Particularly anything that would impact the stormwater runoff rate."

Matt Person, a former senior vice president at Rex who has worked as a consultant, said the group hopes to open the American Institute of Healthcare& Fitness as soon as early 2005.

The goal, Person said, is to integrate health care by including family doctors and specialists, such as dentists and cardiologists; a sports medicine program; a gym and fitness center; a full-service spa; a nutrition store; clinical research; and spiritual, nutritional and lifestyle counseling.

Person and Jay Stevens, a Cary doctor who also works with the Hurricanes, are principals in the management company that would run the spa, the store and an executive health center, where people could come for one- or two-day physicals.
Doctors would own and operate their own practices, Person said.

Mason Williams is developing the property, which includes mostly land owned by the family of his wife, Catherine. The Williamses live near the site.

"We wanted to find the right thing for the land and the neighborhood and us," Mason Williams said. "This looked so good."