A veterinary hospital will lay down more permanent roots later this year in a former bottling facility in Brewers Hill after launching mobile surgery in the Baltimore area during the pandemic.
Nexus Veterinary Specialists will provide specialized animal services, as well as continuing education for veterinarians and veterinary technicians, out of a new location at 3700 O’Donnell Street, Suite 100.
Although there are other veterinary specialists around the Greater Baltimore region, there is a dearth of options within the city proper, which Nexus saw as an opportunity to fill the needs of pet owners in Charm City, said Dr. David Dycus, medical director for Nexus.
“What we are striving to achieve is ultimately providing the best veterinary specialty care, utilizing some of the latest technology, utilizing things in a very minimally invasive way, and really trying to raise the bar for what’s available for specialty care,” Dycus said. “But at the same time, try to keep it at a price point that’s affordable for clients to be able to achieve.”
Dycus, who has lived in the area for six years, said Brewers Hill was the perfect fit for Nexus’s first location on the East Coast.
“We really want to try to become part of the community within the Canton and Brewers Hill area and really provide outreach opportunities and a number of other things within the community,” he said. “Not just to be a hospital and only provide that single service, but provide lots of different services.”
Nexus plans to have the surgical portion of their hospital open this fall, Dycus said. The rest of the hospital is expected to open around mid- to late 2022, and the continuing education center is slated to open around late 2022 or early 2023.
Nexus, which also has locations in Texas and Utah, began offering mobile surgery to Baltimore-area clients in September.
During the pandemic, when pet owners took their animals to their general veterinarian and then required more specialized treatment or surgery, they could schedule for a Nexus veterinarian to come out to that general veterian’s office, Dycus said.
Dycus said Nexus will likely discontinue those mobile services once their Brewers Hill space is running.
Nexus will lease 54,000 square feet in a former National Brewing Company bottling facility from developer Obrecht Commercial Real Estate, Inc.
Obrecht is renovating and redeveloping 2 million square feet at the former homes of two of Baltimore’s landmark breweries: Gunther Brewery and National Brewery.
With the addition of Nexus, the project will be 95% full. Other tenants include global health service company Cigna; cancer genome analysis company PGDx; advertising, marketing and public relations company TBC; and the Brewers Hill Hub co-working space
David Knipp, Obrecht’s vice president, said that as space has filled up, the project has reflected the neighborhood’s growth and revitalization.
“It just speaks to how this community has changed,” Knipp said.
Knipp added that Nexus is a welcome addition not only to Obrecht’s Brewers Hill project, but to the neighborhood as a whole.
“It’s a real sweet spot for them with all the pet owners,” he said.
In addition to offering specialist veterinary care, Nexus will also provide continuing education classes for veterinarians and technicians nationally and internationally, Dycus said, in 21,000 square feet on an upper floor.
An auditorium will fit more than about 153 people, Dycus said, with lecture rooms and hands-on teaching labs on site.
Education will be geared toward the general veterinarian, Dycus said, with topics of study including surgery, dentistry, radiology, ultrasound, business management, internal medicine and other areas. The center will also bring in speakers for specialty areas.
Courses will typically last two to three days, with most students coming in for just one course at a time, or occasionally back-to-back courses, Dycus said.
“They’re able to get their entire year’s worth of needed continuing education within those few days,” he said.
