In July, a large tent went up beside St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital on Lake Oconee Parkway for the Pavilion groundbreaking. According to St. Mary's own account of the day, the crowd was standing-room-only and spilled out past the tent. During his remarks, foundation chair Russell Dawson asked everyone who had been treated at the hospital to raise a hand, and nearly everyone did.

The hospital already has a 24-hour emergency department, so the Pavilion isn't adding one. Its three stories are for care people come back for: infusion sessions on a schedule, rehab visits, pharmacy pickups and specialist follow-ups. Del Webb at Lake Oconee's own community page lists a hospital less than two miles away. For residents there, the most useful date is fall 2027, when those standing appointments are scheduled to move into one building next door to the emergency room.

What the Hospital Already Handles, and What It Sends Away

St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital is at 5401 Lake Oconee Parkway and is open 24 hours a day. Its location page lists 24/7 emergency services and an imaging department with MRI, 3D mammography, ultrasound, bone densitometry, a 640-slice CT, echocardiograms, digital X-ray and nuclear medicine. For a rural hospital, that's a lot of diagnostic capability under one roof.

The gaps show up in follow-up care. In the May 2026 announcement, Chief of Staff Dr. Dave Ringer said, "there are still many needs we cannot meet locally." Trinity Health Georgia CEO Stonish Pierce said the Pavilion "will improve access to care and reduce the burden of travel." The service list shows where that travel happens now. Here is how today's setup compares with the plan St. Mary's has published.

Almost every row on the right is a visit that happens more than once. The Pavilion is designed around that kind of care.

Three Chairs to Nine

The infusion numbers show the change most clearly. The hospital already offers outpatient non-oncology infusion, the kind of hospital-based treatment the May announcement associates with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis. According to the groundbreaking release, the Pavilion takes the service from three chairs to nine.

That triples a service where patients come back on a set schedule, so more of those sessions can be booked a few minutes from the lake. St. Mary's also lists rheumatology among the specialties planned for the Pavilion's 13,000 square feet of physician space. When it opens, the specialist who orders an infusion and the chair where it's given are planned to be in the same building.

Rehab follows a similar logic. Physical, occupational and speech therapy currently share a clinic on the hospital's first floor. When that clinic moves into the Pavilion, the space it leaves is slated for cardiac rehabilitation. In its May announcement, St. Mary's described the goal as a continuous path from inpatient heart care to outpatient recovery.

A Pharmacy Counter and a Classroom

Two parts of the plan matter to people who never need a specialist.

The first is a retail pharmacy open to the community, alongside a "meds-to-beds" program that delivers prescriptions to inpatients before they go home. On the Parkway, a pharmacy counter attached to the hospital and its lab draw station puts a prescription, a blood draw and an appointment at the same address.

The second is the Community Education and Conference Center. The May announcement describes a 3,200-square-foot classroom with a catering kitchen. The Pavilion campaign page describes the building as a hub for health education, screenings and community outreach, though no specific events or schedule have been announced. A classroom of that size with a working kitchen is the kind of room that hosts health talks, support groups and community meetings, so Del Webb neighbors could end up visiting the Pavilion for reasons that have nothing to do with being a patient.

What's Open Along the Parkway While Construction Runs

St. Mary's has said that all current inpatient, outpatient and emergency services will keep running during construction. Several options nearby are already open and don't depend on the Pavilion.

• Good Samaritan Primary Care, the St. Mary's Medical Group practice in Greensboro, is at 1110 Commerce Dr., Suite 108.
• Athens Orthopedic Clinic's Lake Oconee campus at 1031 Lake Country Drive opened an Orthopedic Urgent Care Center in February 2026. The clinic calls it the region's first and only orthopedic urgent care. Walk-ins are seen Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• The same campus added hip and knee replacement surgeon Dr. Clayton Wing and spine surgeon Dr. William Tally. Athens Orthopedic also said it planned to add hand specialist Colt Crymes and sports medicine and orthopedic surgeon Cody White at Lake Oconee in September 2026.

A twisted ankle on the pickleball court or a sore shoulder after a round of golf doesn't need an emergency room. Since February, there has been a place on Lake Country Drive built for exactly those injuries, with weekday walk-in hours, and Athens Orthopedic's announcement lists the full Lake Oconee physician roster.

Who Is Paying for It

The Pavilion costs $45.6 million. Trinity Health, the parent of St. Mary's, is putting in $35.6 million, and the St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation is raising the other $10 million in a campaign called "Expanding Access, Saving Lives." At the groundbreaking, Dawson put it this way, as quoted in St. Mary's release: "They are looking for our community to come alongside with a $10 million investment."

The largest named gift so far comes from just down the road. On August 18, 2026, St. Mary's announced that Reynolds Lake Oconee had pledged $1 million to the campaign. In that release, Reynolds President Rabun Neal called the hospital "a cornerstone for the health and welfare of our community since opening its doors nearly 15 years ago." On October 9, 2026, St. Mary's announced that BankSouth had given $100,000 to Good Samaritan Hospital through Georgia HEART. St. Mary's announcement presents that as a gift to the hospital and doesn't tie it to the Pavilion campaign. The campaign page lists the $10 million goal but no total raised so far.

Fall 2027 Is a Target, and Other Parkway Projects Run Later

St. Mary's has described the Pavilion as under construction since its August update, and it hasn't revised the fall 2027 opening it announced in May. Like any construction date, it's a projection.

Of the large projects underway along this stretch, the Pavilion is scheduled to finish first. In March 2026, Lake Oconee News reported that Oconee Towne Center, planned near Highway 44 and I-20, expected its first stores to open in late 2027 or the first quarter of 2028. Its tenant list includes a 100,000-square-foot grocery store that hasn't been named yet. The first phase of the SR 44 widening covers about 2.5 miles, from Town Creek Boulevard to roughly a mile south of King Drive. The same outlet reported in October 2025 that the phase was estimated for completion in fall 2028, with no estimates yet for the later phases. That timeline is a year old.

If those timelines hold, a Del Webb resident's recurring appointments will move to a larger building next to the hospital before the new grocery store or the widened road opens.

Our team has called Lake Oconee home since 2001, and we keep track of the Parkway's changes, from the Pavilion's construction to the new grocery's opening date, the same way our clients do. If you'd like to talk about how these changes fit your plans at Del Webb, Jennifer Vaughan and our team are glad to help. Love Where You Live. Let's Get Started.