The Perfect Site
by Bill Gladstone


Staying close to Harrisburg and Holy Spirit Hospitals and maintaining easy access and parking for 300 cars, led us to consider sites on Poplar Church Road, Erford Road, or even modifying the facility Orthopedic Institute of Pennsylvania used at the time. Those stringent criteria made it very difficult to locate a site that would work for a 30,000 to 40,000 square foot medical facility, and it took more than four years and a lot of patience to put together this transaction.  

“It took a lot of time until the perfect site appeared,” said Jack Frankeny II, M.D. with OIP. “The Camp Hill site was just that site—we can consolidate three offices and improve efficiency. Most importantly, it will allow us to increase convenience to our patients.”  

In 2003, we located a parcel of land in Wormleysburg adjacent to the Harsco facility. We put approximately 2 acres under contract and started our process. The land was expensive, the excavation cost more than usual due to the topography, and there was even an issue with the cost of the off-site improvements. But the OIP doctors collectively decided this was a location that would work well for their patients and proceeded forward. As we went through the process, we encountered zoning issues and worked with neighbors to try to lessen the impact of the proposed building, which would be adjacent to their homes. Although OIP is a Monday through Friday operation with very limited weekend hours, and unobtrusive to the neighborhood, it was still a change difficult for many people. Additionally, the lot coverage requirements were extremely tight to comply with zoning. Both the Planning Commission and the Borough Council stepped forward, realizing the need to have business within the borough (especially to improve the tax base) and were very helpful, finding ways to allow us to succeed. Everything was working well and we were approximately two weeks from having a land development plan approved, with settlement and construction shortly after that.  

Then Norfolk Southern Railroad appeared at a Lemoyne Borough meeting. They announced that they would be increasing train traffic through that area. Although many of the trains run late at night and early in the morning, this was still enough to concern the doctors that not only they, but perhaps their patients, could be inconvenienced by the train traffic almost immediately in front of the proposed building. The project was scrapped within 24 hours. I had to agree that there was no sense making a bad deal just to make a deal. We looked for a new home for OIP for approximately a year after that meeting.  

The doctors handled the process over the next few years very professionally, with a focus on obtaining only practical results. They realized that having 17 or 18 people trying to make a decision was an ineffective way of proceeding. They appointed a small committee to represent the interests of the entire group. As we went through the process each time, the committee worked together and now, four years later, came up with the desired results of locating at the epicenter at the newly renovated Camp Hill Shopping Center at Rte. 15 and Trindle Road.  

“When we thought about the ideal site for a West Shore office, easy access from a large geographic area was a top priority. A site at the junction of Route 581 and Route 11/15 seemed perfect,” said Greg Hanks, M.D. of OIP. “It allows access to our facility from all the major routes—I-83, I-81, Route 11, Route 15, and the PA Turnpike.”  

The site was perfect for this focused group of surgeons, but the medical facility will also help the Camp Hill Shopping Center.  

“We put a medical facility in one of our Philadelphia shopping centers and it had a tremendous positive impact on our retail tenants’ sales.” said Tom Richey, the representative for Cedar Shopping Center, owner of the Camp Hill Shopping Center.” Although we had no direct profit from it, it was the right thing to do for our tenants. It diversified our anchor base and our traffic generation.”

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