HIRAM — WellStar Health System officials plan to build a new hospital and a medical office in Hiram, a project that would create 500 jobs in Paulding County.

WellStar would close its existing circa-1958 WellStar Paulding Hospital in Dallas on West Memorial Drive.

The new $125 million hospital is scheduled to open in April 2014, creating 300 new jobs, officials said.

The new hospital, to be located on Bill Carruth Parkway and U.S. 278 in Hiram, would start with 56 beds, all of them private rooms, and grow to 112 beds, compared to the existing 83 licensed-bed hospital in Dallas.

The Hiram site already has a medical office building run by WellStar. WellStar plans to add a second, 80,000 square-foot medical office building at a cost of $22 million there as well, and connect all three buildings. The second medical office building is expected to create 200 jobs and be open in January 2013.

While the hospital will close, WellStar will keep the building.

WellStar will file its Certificate of Need by Aug. 1 and wants to begin construction by August 2012, said spokesman Keith Bowermaster.