Dow Smith Company is proud to begin work on another building for Murfreesboro Medical Clinic – the biggest one yet.

We recently started work on a facility that will be constructed on the corner of Shores Road and Birchtree Drive off of Veterans Parkway. The three-story, 75,000-square-foot steel-framed structure will have composite metal decking, a pre-cast façade and medal stud interior framing. The multi-specialty medical practice will include an out-patient procedure suite.

“This is the largest project in the history of our company and we couldn’t be more excited that we get to do it with Murfreesboro Medical Clinic,” says Dow Smith, President and Owner of Dow Smith Company.

The architect on the project is longtime collaborator Rob McKelvey. The Dow Smith Team has also been collaborating on the project with Enoch Jarrell at Huddleston-Steele Engineering, Inc., a local civil engineering firm. Dow Smith Company Partner Joey Rhyne is the project executive. The project manager is Bryan Jaynes and Troy Briesch is serving as project superintendent.  

Murfreesboro Medical Clinic was founded in 1949 by Dr. Carl Adams and Dr. S.C. Garrison. Today, MMC has nearly 90 physicians and 40 other specialists who represent 20 specialties as a part of their group. MMC employs about 800 employees.

“Most of our physicians and employees live and work here,” MMC CEO Joey Peay says. “I want MMC to provide the most amazing care we can because we’re caring for my family, my friends, my neighbors. I want to be able to, without hesitation, recommend our care to anybody with whom I come into contact.”

To achieve that goal, Peay says MMC needs to continue to expand beyond its main campus on Garrison Drive. Dow Smith Company’s first project with MMC was in 2008: a 1,400-square-foot build-out on Lascassas Pike that is still in use. Then, Dow Smith Company did a complete tenant build-out for MMC’s two-story, 17,000-square-foot space at The Fountains. MMC’s first big expansion, which was completed in fall of 2019, was a 30,000-square-foot building on Shelbyville Pike that offers gastroenterology, gynecology, internal and family medicine, pediatrics, lab services and radiology services. The new building off of Veterans Parkway will be more than twice the size of the one on Shelbyville Pike.

Read more about Dow Smith Company and MMC here.

Peay, who grew up in Murfreesboro, says MMC’s expansion needs to keep pace with the rapid growth of the community.

“When I first started driving, Murfreesboro was pretty much a 10-minute town. You could get around anywhere in Murfreesboro in about 10 minutes. Now there are some intersections you can’t get through in 10 minutes,” Peay says. “And so when we built our Garrison Drive location with the size and mass that it is, we knew we were going to have to have some satellites to better serve a growing community.”

Murfreesboro’s population has skyrocketed during the past two decades—from about 68,000 in 2000 to more than 150,000 today. It is now the sixth largest city in Tennessee. Rutherford County’s population has boomed from about 182,000 in 2000 to more than 340,000 today. Rutherford is now the fifth largest county in Tennessee, and a study from the University of Tennessee projects that it will be the third largest county by 2050.

“We’re also looking at future expansion as Murfreesboro continues to grow. When you look at what the population of our community is projected to be over the next 10 or 20 years and to know that those people who are moving here are going to need medical care, it’s critical that we keep ahead of—or at least as close to—that growth curve to be able to provide medical care and get physicians here ready to see those patients.”

While MMC’s buildings are increasing in number and in size, Dow Smith Company Partner and Design-Builder Joey Rhyne says the atmosphere at MMC has remained welcoming and personal.

“When I walk in the door, I feel at home,” he says. “It’s a family atmosphere.”

By the time the new MMC location off of Veterans Parkway opens, Joey Peay will have worked with Dow Smith Company for more than 15 years. He has some simple advice for leaders of medical facilities looking to build in Rutherford County.

“Do business with people you trust. If you can’t trust them, you don’t need to do business with them,” he says. “What I have found in Dow Smith Company is a group of individuals who are my friends and at the end of the day, I trust them. … It’s great to have relationships, especially in building, with people you know and trust. You know they’re going to do quality work. That’s a given. But then to be able to look each other in the eye at the end of the project and know that we can move on to the next project.”

Listen to MMC CEO Joey Peay on our “From the Ground Up” podcast below.