Memorial Healthcare’s $40 Million NOW Building Still Draws Patients

Memorial Healthcare opened its $40 million NOW Building in Owosso on May 2, 2022, after missing a January completion date set while crews were still in the hole. The 115,000 square-foot stack put neurology, orthopedics, rehab and a public gym on one campus.

Close to 400 people had already bought memberships before the doors opened. The gym still takes members. The floors around it house a neuroscience institute the independent hospital has kept expanding.

Memorial Spent $40 Million on One Roof

Crews started the building in September 2019 on the main campus along Shiawassee Street, also known as M-52. Hospital leaders told the public they wanted patients to move from an orthopedic visit to physical therapy to a trainer without leaving the block. Director of Facilities Charlie Thompson put that aim in plain terms while the steel was still going up.

We’re trying to change the way that patients are cared for, so every step of the patient has been taken into account.

Charlie Thompson, Director of Facilities, Memorial Healthcare

Danielle Schmidt, then executive director of the project, described the same path: surgery, therapy in the same building, then a trainer to protect a new knee or hip. COVID-19 and finishing-material delays pushed the job past January. Programming and Wellness Manager Sarah McNamara said the public gym would open May 2, with the Institute for Neuroscience, clinical research and the outpatient lab on May 16 and outpatient therapy on May 23.

FROM GROUNDBREAKING TO THE 5K

1. September 2019: Construction starts on the 115,000 square-foot building.
2. January 2022: Original completion target, later missed because of COVID-19 and supply delays.
3. May 2, 2022: Wellness Center opens to the public, with close to 400 memberships already sold.
4. May 16, 2022: Institute for Neuroscience, clinical research and the outpatient lab open.
5. May 23, 2022: Outpatient physical, speech, occupational and pediatric therapy open.
6. July 2022: Shiawassee Economic Development Partnership names the project its Project of the Year.
7. August 16, 2022: Official ribbon-cutting for the four-story NOW Building.
8. January 2023: Memorial is among the first hospitals in Michigan to prescribe Leqembi for Alzheimer’s disease.
9. November 2023: Board installs a Memorial Health System structure and keeps the hospital independent.
10. January 2025: Brain Health Navigator program starts in family medicine.
11. May 4, 2026: Two advanced practice providers join the Institute for Neuroscience.
12. October 17, 2026: Go Blue Go Green 5K is scheduled at the Wellness Center at 9 a.m.

President and CEO Brian L. Long said NOW stands for Neurology, Orthopedics and the Wellness Center program. The four-story building was planned with 38 exam rooms for the orthopedic and neurology groups. Spence Brothers ran the job as construction manager for architect Edmund London & Associates, putting a stone-clad steel frame and infusion bridge on the campus so neurologists could walk to infusion instead of sending patients across the lot.

A Gym, a Track and a Therapy Pool

The public pitch was a medically based gym, not another strip-mall fitness club. Members get an exercise plan from an exercise physiologist who asks about injuries before anyone is pointed at a treadmill. McNamara said the pool was the amenity that pulled people in before opening day. The gym also became a local hangout, complete with a podcast studio that visiting hosts used as a set.

The contractor’s write-up matches what members walk through: a two-story cardio and strength floor, a large therapy pool, physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, bracing, an ambulation clinic, pediatric therapy, lab and imaging. Heavy timber holds up the entrance canopy. A four-phase parking rebuild was part of the same job.

INCLUDED WITH A MEMBERSHIP

• Cardio floor: Treadmills, spin bikes, ellipticals, recumbent bikes, steppers, rowers and strength machines.
• Skytrack: A 360-degree indoor track for walking, jogging or running above the gym floor.
• Water: Therapy pool time for group classes, open swim and weekend family swim.
• Recovery rooms: Sauna, steam rooms, private shower suites and men’s, women’s and family locker rooms.
• Classes: Unlimited drop-in group fitness, including pilates, yoga, spin, Zumba and high-intensity interval training, with more than 25 classes a week.

Add-on services sit next to that list: massage, personal training, one-on-one nutrition counseling, diabetes education, flexibility work, an arthritis aquatic program and a multiple sclerosis aquatic group. Drop-in childcare is sold in two-hour blocks so a parent can lift, swim or sit through an appointment upstairs.

What a Membership Covers at the Wellness Center

Anyone 13 or older can join. McNamara said the center leans adult, with a dependent option for ages 13 to 17. An individual membership has been advertised from $52 a month, plus a $60 sign-up fee. Couple, senior, senior-couple and dependent rates are sold at the desk. Group fitness is in the monthly price. Tours run during open hours with no appointment.

The hospital’s wellness page posts current hours and membership signup, along with the pool calendar. Those hours are long for a small-city gym, which is the point of putting it on a hospital campus where shift workers and clinic patients already park.

WELLNESS CENTER HOURS AND CHILDCARE

Childcare costs members $3 an hour per child and non-members $5, in a two-hour block. The desk closes for lunch Monday through Thursday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday have no childcare. The hospital has not published a later headcount to show whether those close-to-400 pre-sale memberships grew, shrank or turned over. The schedule, the pool calendar and the 2026 member challenges are the public evidence that the gym is still a going concern.

Neuroscience Took the Rest of the Floors

The gym was the ribbon-cutting photo. The quieter half of the wager was a rural hospital trying to keep complex brain and nerve care in Shiawassee County. The 2023 annual report said the Institute for Neuroscience already had over 20 neurology physicians and providers in Owosso, Saginaw, Okemos, Auburn and Howell.

In January 2023, after conditional FDA approval, Memorial was among the first institutions in Michigan to prescribe Leqembi, an IV drug studied for slowing cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. The same report said the institute was one of five in Michigan recognized as a Center for Comprehensive MS Care by the National MS Society, that it was first in the United States to use neurofilament light testing clinically for MS patients, and that it had over 30 Phase 1 through 4 research projects open or in development.

NEUROLOGY INSIDE THE NOW BUILDING

• The 2023 roster: Over 20 physicians and advanced practice providers across five cities, with the Owosso clinic on the first floor at 819 N. Shiawassee Street.
• The Alzheimer’s line: Leqembi prescribing began in January 2023; Dr. Cara Leahy, director for cognitive disorders, leads that work.
• The navigator: A Brain Health Navigator program in primary care started in January 2025 and moved 82 patients through cognitive testing, labs, imaging and triage.
• The 2026 hires: On May 4, 2026, Whitney Primeau, DNP, joined the Saginaw clinic, and Rebecca Enright, FNP, PMHNP-BC, joined Owosso as a memory-care specialist. Both were listed as accepting new patients.

Spence Brothers said the design existed because MS patients and other neurology patients were tired of bouncing between lab, imaging and treatment. Specialists were supposed to walk down the hall instead. That is a different product from spin class, and it is the product Memorial has kept staffing.

How the Hospital Stayed Independent

Memorial Hospital opened on May 1, 1921, as a World War I memorial for Shiawassee County. It is still a private nonprofit. The 2023 annual report counted 161 beds, more than 1,500 employees and a claim as the county’s largest employer, with a medical staff of nearly 500 and over 130 employed providers. The service area that year was six counties: Bay, Clinton, Ingham, Livingston, Saginaw and Shiawassee.

In November 2023, after a unanimous board vote, the hospital put itself under a Memorial Health System umbrella. Long wrote that the change followed more than two years of debate and was meant to open partnerships and revenue lines such as childcare, clinical research and development. The report said the system model was not a merger. Justin Horvath, president and CEO of the Shiawassee Economic Development Partnership, had already called the NOW Building a rare asset for a county this size when his group gave it Project of the Year in July 2022.

MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE OPERATING RESULTS

Those figures are hospital-wide, not a profit-and-loss for the gym. 2022 was the year the NOW Building opened, and 2023 was the first full calendar year after that. Memorial later leased a former Rite Aid in Owosso for urgent care and pharmacy and announced a Flushing site in Genesee County with family medicine, urgent care, pharmacy, rotating specialties, lab and radiology. Danielle Wendling, a registered dietitian, was listed in 2023 as associate vice president for the NOW Building, the operational title sitting on top of the original project.

Book the Go Blue Go Green 5K

The Wellness Center’s own calendar is still full. For September 1 through September 30, 2026, it ran a members-only Step-Tember challenge: 240,000 steps in the month, about 8,000 a day, for $15, with a prize bag for anyone who hit the mark. Adult swim lessons, small-group training and the MS and arthritis pool programs have stayed on the add-on menu.

On October 17, 2026, at 9 a.m., the same parking lot hosts the Go Blue Go Green 5K rivalry run and walk. Registration was $25 through September 13, 2026, then $30 from September 14 through October 4, with a shirt guaranteed for people who register by that second date. Go Blue Go Green 5K registration is on RunSignup. The start line is the Wellness Center door at 819 N. Shiawassee Street.

That is a modest event on a $40 million campus. It is also a clean measure of what the public half of the bet became: a hospital gym that still has a reason to print race bibs.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did the Memorial Healthcare Wellness Center Open?

The gym opened to the public on May 2, 2022, after a January target slipped. The Institute for Neuroscience, clinical research and outpatient lab followed on May 16, 2022, and outpatient therapy opened on May 23, 2022, with the formal ribbon-cutting on August 16, 2022.

What Does NOW Stand for at Memorial Healthcare?

Long said NOW stands for Neurology, Orthopedics and the Wellness Center program. The same building also holds outpatient rehab, clinical research, a 3T MRI, executive suites and a Big Salad restaurant, with a retail and specialty pharmacy planned at opening.

Who Can Join the Owosso Wellness Center?

Membership is open to the community at age 13 and up, not only to hospital staff. People who are 16 or 17 need a parent or guardian signature, and children under 13 are steered to the drop-in childcare room rather than a full gym membership.

Where Is the NOW Building in Owosso?

The street address is 819 N. Shiawassee Street, Owosso, MI 48867, on Memorial’s main campus just off M-52. The Wellness Center occupies the first floor; the Institute for Neuroscience is also listed on the first floor of the same building.

On race morning the same doors that opened on May 2, 2022, will be the start line. The hospital still has not posted how many members remain from that first wave of close to 400. It has kept hiring neurologists, and it has kept the pool calendar current.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a hospital building, a community gym and publicly described clinical programs. It is informational only and is not medical advice, a diagnosis, a treatment plan or a recommendation to join a gym or start a drug. Readers should talk with a licensed physician, neurologist or other qualified clinician before changing exercise, diet or medication, including after joint replacement or with a memory, MS or other neurologic diagnosis. Membership prices, class schedules, drug availability and staffing figures reflect the hospital and program pages cited here and can change.