Novant Health plans Cumming expansion as Forsyth County grows

Novant Health is set to take new space at 4150 Deputy Bill Cantrell Memorial Road in Cumming, a move that puts another health care foothold in the county seat as Forsyth County strains under fast population growth. The occupancy date in the development notice is on or about July 1, 2027.

The expansion lands in a county that keeps adding residents at a pace many local systems are still trying to catch up with. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put Forsyth County’s population at 282,805 on July 1, 2025, up 12.5% from April 1, 2020. A year earlier, the county was estimated at 280,096. That growth is part of the pressure reshaping everything from road use to school enrollment, and health care is no exception.

For many families, the issue is not abstract development. It is whether they can get an appointment without a long wait, whether they can see a specialist closer to home, and whether they have to leave the county for routine care. Novant’s expansion signals that it sees Cumming and greater Forsyth as a market worth building out, not just a place to serve from a distance.

The company says its system includes more than 850 locations, among them 700-plus physician clinics and urgent care centers, outpatient facilities and other sites. That footprint helps explain why Novant keeps pushing deeper into fast-growing suburban areas like Forsyth, where demand has outpaced the infrastructure built for an earlier era.

The Cumming project is also moving alongside another local Novant initiative. The system and Forsyth Technical Community College announced a partnership to open a dedicated clinic on the college’s Main Campus in fall 2026, another access point that could matter for students, employees and nearby residents looking for care without crossing county lines.

Forsyth County’s Comprehensive Plan, the county’s official policy guide for future growth and development, has long anticipated the kind of pressure now visible in health care planning. As Cumming expands and more neighborhoods fill in across Forsyth, Novant’s arrival adds to the list of investments that could eventually make local care easier to reach.