VIDALIA, La. — Ground should be broken in two to three months on an imaging center that will be the first phase of a 12,000-square-foot medical complex on the riverfront in Vidalia, said one of four doctors opening the facility.

&uot;We hoped we would have that center going by the first of the year, though that may be optimistic,&uot; said group spokesman Dr. John White. &uot;But that’s still what we’re pushing for.&uot;

White and Drs. Barry Tillman, Randy Tillman and Russ Fairbanks, doing business as Twin Oaks Holding LLC, are waiting for engineering data they need to finalize plans for the second phase. That would be a separate building with an outpatient surgical center and doctors’ offices.

Earlier this year, White said the whole complex could be finished by fall 2001.

Walter Brown, attorney for Natchez Regional Medical Center’s board, has said the hospital will lose at least $1.5 million if the four doctors take all their surgeries to Twin Oaks. The hospital would have to cut services, raise rates or boost recruitment of doctors as a result, Brown has said.

The Twin Oaks group first planned on locating the complex in Adams County. But in Mississippi, medical facilities have to get a certificate from the Department of Health saying there’s a need for such a facility.

In Louisiana, they do not.

The center will be part of a $45 million riverfront development, Vidalia Landing, that could include a visitors center, stores, restaurants, an amphitheater, condominiums, recreational fields and other attractions.

The first phase of site and infrastructure work for Vidalia Landing should be finished by July.