Penn Highlands Healthcare — a Clearfield County-based health care juggernaut — broke ground Tuesday on a $70 million mini-hospital and office building in Centre County.

Penn Highlands State College Hospital will be the system’s ninth hospital in Central and Western Pennsylvania, which includes locations in Washington and Fayette counties. Completion is expected in the spring of 2024.

“Although there are eight hospitals in our health system, this marks the first one that we are designing and building to our specifications,” Penn Highlands Healthcare CEO Steven M. Fontaine said in a prepared statement.

The medical office building will contain a retail pharmacy, walk-in clinic, which will be branded QCare, doctors’ offices, and OB/GYN and cancer treatment centers. The 18-bed hospital and office building will be located on Colonnade Blvd. in Patton Township.

Groundbreaking for the hospital continues explosive growth for the DuBois-based Penn Highlands, which has included the acquisition of two drug stores, an EMS agency and a senior living provider in the past four months alone. Penn Highlands Healthcare was formed in 2011. Its businesses include nursing homes and durable medical equipment and home care companies in addition to hospitals and pharmacies serving a 39 county region of Pennsylvania.

Among Penn Highlands’ hospitals are Penn Highlands Connellsville in Fayette County and Penn Highlands Monongahela Valley Hospital in Washington County, both acquired in October.

Penn Highlands’ new hospital and office building will compete with the Geisinger Healthplex, a 144,000-square-foot multi-specialty medical clinic and retail pharmacy three miles away in Patton Township, just off the I-99 interchange. The Healthplex opened in 2008 and was recently renovated.