By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A physician at Alabaster’s Urology Centers of Alabama said his firm is “doing very well” after it moved, along with Shelby OB/GYN, to a new $4.5 million facility on U.S. 31.

Urology Centers of Alabama finished moving into the new building from the Shelby Baptist Medical Center Physicians Center on Jan. 21, which was shortly after Shelby OB/GYN also moved into the new building from Shelby Baptist.

The new building is more than 20,000-square-feet, and is just south of Shelby Baptist on U.S. 31. Urology Centers of Alabama occupies about 5,200-square-feet on the building’s first floor, and Shelby OB/GYN occupies about 15,000-square-feet on the second floor, said Urology Centers of Alabama Dr. Patrick Mills.

Mills works at Urology Centers of Alabama with fellow physicians Jason Burrus and John Wilbanks. One doctor typically works in the facility’s operating room while the other two see patients in the examining rooms, Mills said.

The new building will give both practices more room to handle the rising number of patients they have seen over the past several years, Mills said.

“Our workspace became inadequate as our program grew,” Mills said. “At the same time, our lease was getting ready to be up (at the Physicians Center), and we knew we wanted to be close to the hospital. We were lucky to find a piece of property this close to the hospital.”

Mills said the new building gave both companies a “more efficient workspace” and significantly more dedicated parking than they had at Shelby Baptist.