Community Healthcare Groundbreaking
At 11:00 a.m. today in Tacoma the shiny shovels come out, along with local and state elected officials, for the groundbreaking at the site of the new Community Healthcare center in the Hilltop. The new Hilltop Regional Health Center, at 1202 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, will bring definite changes to the corner.
According to the Community Healthcare website, the center, which replaces the old Community Healthcare clinic nearby, will offer urgent care, medical and dental services on a sliding fee scale to primarily low-income and uninsured Pierce County residents. The center expects to see 200 to 300 patients daily, or about 48,000 visits over the course of a year. The building will house nearly 60 exam rooms between the general clinic and specialties clinic, 15 urgent care exam rooms, a pharmacy and laboratory, office space and classrooms for physician training. The project page also promises 270 parking spaces.
$13.5 million in grants will fund more than half of the estimated $23 million project, including an expected 60 construction-related jobs. According to the Community Healthcare project information, “A campaign has begun to underwrite the additional $9.5 million of this cost through contributions from foundations, businesses, public sector grants, groups and individuals.”
A recent update on the MLK Neighborhood Sub-area Plan included mention of anxieties from some community members over sharing their neighborhood with “medical mile” neighbors. So, here’s one more piece in the medial mile. If you’re part of the Hilltop community, do you welcome the new health center?
Read more at www.commhealth.org.
Filed under: mlk-neighborhood
2 comments
A Akula April 11, 2012
absolutly I’m all for it and I only live a few blocks away.
J jd April 11, 2012
Having worked in the middle of the Hilltop for the past ten years, I’ve seen the positive changes that have come from the expanding medical community. While there have been some negative issues, such as the demolition of entire blocks of houses (and the occasional church) for the expansion of the Big Two, the neighborhood has changed significantly for the better. For instance, it’s far cleaner and safer than it was just a few years ago.
This building is going to be built on what is currently a vacant lot, in a mainly business part of the Hill. The majority of the houses are at least two blocks away. As long as there is a good bus stop at the new site, and a good sized garage, I don’t really think that parking will be much a problem for the surrounding area.
It should also benefit the local restaurants and coffee shops, not only from the people who are working at the facility, but also those people coming into the clinic for services.