A new medical facility planned for Highland Parkway could give Pearl River County residents closer access to sleep studies, specialty care and medical equipment.
The Health One multipurpose medical facility is expected to include about 9,800 square feet of medical and commercial space. Developers said the project will include a diagnostic sleep lab, physician offices, a medical supply company and a restaurant.
For Picayune residents, the closest sleep lab is in Slidell, Louisiana, about 20 miles away. Craig Gravely, a Picayune resident and sleep diagnostic specialist, said that gap helped drive the project.
“That was my first target for growth, Picayune, because anyone in Pearl River County has to travel to get a sleep study done,” Gravely said. “There’s a huge population that has sleep apnea, and if they need to be tested or treated, they have to travel.”
Gravely partnered with Gulfport Sleep Center owner Binoy Mishra to expand sleep services into areas where patients have fewer local options.
The main unit will be a sleep lab designed to diagnose and treat sleep apnea and related conditions. Another unit will house a durable medical equipment provider supplying CPAP and BiPAP machines. Two other units will become a multispecialty medical clinic.
Mishra said the goal is to bring providers to Picayune on a rotating basis, depending on patient demand.
“There are so many specialties that are not there,” Mishra said. “The people have to travel out. That’s what we are trying to bring in for this multispecialty unit.”
Mishra said his wife, Dr. Abha Mishra of Gulfport Sleep Center, already provides services in Wiggins, Diamondhead and Biloxi.
“We are talking to a couple of providers to see who can come in there and provide that service at least once a week, once every 15 days or as frequently as the demand permits,” Mishra said. “That will be a big service to the community.”
Gravely said the facility could also create jobs in the sleep care field, though recruiting qualified workers may be a challenge.
“It’s going to create jobs for sure. In the sleep field, it’s limited because there’s a huge shortage of sleep techs. They have to be certified or registered with the Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists, so that’s a skilled area that we have to recruit and bring in,” Gravely said.
Mishra said city and county support through tax increment financing helped offset some upfront development costs.
“The city came up with this tax increment financing. That actually helped us quite a bit to mitigate some of the … upfront costs,” Mishra said. “It was an accelerator for us. The credit goes to the city and the county for that.”
Gravely said the facility is expected to open around March 2027, depending on weather and construction timelines.
“We’re shooting for a 10-month mark. But we should have a weather-permitting concrete slab poured within a week, and then it has to sit. Within two and a half to three weeks, the metal buildings should start being erected. But the final project timeline is realistically 10 to 12 months,” Gravely said.
Although Picayune is the group’s first development outside Gulfport, Mishra said more projects are planned along the Coast.
“We are developing a medical office building in Gulfport. It’s almost going to be complete in the next two months. Then Picayune is our second project. Then we have another project in Biloxi,” Mishra said. “We are in the process of doing a couple of projects where we will have sleep labs.”
This report was produced by the Roy Howard Community Journalism Center at the University of Southern Mississippi.