NATCHEZ &045; Heavy equipment operators paid little attention as a large party grabbed shovels and tossed a little dirt at the site of a new medical office building Tuesday.

The noisy construction crews presented a dramatic background for the official groundbreaking for the building soon to rise adjacent to Natchez Regional Medical Center to replace the 40-year-old Medical Arts complex.

&uot;We’ve been wanting to do this for many years,&uot; said Dr. Frank Guedon, one of the six physicians who will own the new building. &uot;We need a new office building.&uot;

The need was obvious, Guedon said. Doctors came together to make it happen. They are Guedon, Dr. Kenneth Stubbs, Dr. Edward Daly, Dr. Blane Mire, Dr. Robert Haimson and Dr. Carl Passman.

&uot;This is an investment of several years of work,&uot; Stubbs said. &uot;The citizens of Mississippi and Adams County who came together and spearheaded the tort reform battles we had to fight made it possible. If that hadn’t been done, we wouldn’t be here today.&uot;

Stubbs said the new building will be &uot;a center for continued provision of quality health care for the city of Natchez and our area.&uot;

Jackson architect Richard Dean became involved in the project nearly five years ago. &uot;I had heard there was a need here,&uot; he said. &uot;The physicians needed it and the hospital needed it, but the hospital couldn’t do it.&uot;

He knew the project had a better chance of succeeding with a developer, Dean said.

&uot;I contacted Gary Cress. He became interested, took hold of it and made it happen,&uot; Dean said. &uot;Numerous times he could have bailed out and I couldn’t have blamed him, but he didn’t. It became almost a personal mission for him to bring it to fruition.&uot;

Cress, also of Jackson, said the building will be an asset for the doctors and for the people of the Natchez area. &uot;I’m excited for the people of Natchez,&uot; he said. &uot;There were times I thought we wouldn’t make it.&uot;

The building will house doctors’ offices as well as some services provided by Natchez Regional, he said. &uot;I think the building will be close to full by the time it’s complete,&uot; Cress said.

The three-story hospital will have 57,000 square feet, Dean said. Some small changes have taken place since the first architect’s rendering was published a couple of years ago. A new rendering is in the works.

The physician investors purchased from the Adams County supervisors the land that forms the &uot;footprint of the building,&uot; Stubbs said. When the new building is complete, in about 12 months, the old Medical Arts complex will be razed.

Haimson, one of the owners of the new building, said it is more than an investment.

&uot;The patients deserve better than they have now. And the doctors do, too,&uot; he said. &uot;This has taken a lot more time and effort to do it ourselves, but it’s going to be worth it to everybody.&uot;