SouthEast Lancaster Health Services, which operates free or low-cost clinics in the southern part of Lancaster city, is planning to answer demand for its medical care by expanding to a site in the city's northwest.
The Lancaster City Zoning Hearing Board on Monday granted the nonprofit organization's application to use 18,000 square feet of space at 333 N. Arch St.
"What we are trying to do is increase our service," Nelson Polite Sr., a SouthEast Lancaster Health Services board member, told the hearing board.
Polite said the organization already offers care at its facility at 625 S. Duke St. and at a satellite office in the BrightSide Opportunities Center, 515 Hershey Ave. The move to Arch Street will bring the clinic closer to patients in the northwestern and northeastern sections of the city.
"It will also allow for us to increase our dental capacity at SouthEast that we have now," Polite said.
Jim Kelly, SouthEast Lancaster Health Services chief operating officer, said plans call for the administrative offices of the organization to be moved to the new site. That will free space for the expansion of the six-chair dental clinic.
All dental services will remain at the South Duke Street clinic, but the Arch Street clinic will become the largest of the three medical service clinics, Kelly said.
Although the Arch Street clinic will have approximately the same number of square feet as the existing South Duke clinic, there will be more examiners at Arch Street, he said.
The expansion likely will add 30 to 50 staff members to the existing 102 people who now work for SouthEast Lancaster Health Services, Kelly said.
When renovations are completed sometime within the next year, pediatric, primary, family practice, social service and probably obstetric and gynecological care will be provided at the new site, he said.
Those services, in addition to dental care, are now provided at South Duke Street and will continue to be provided there, Kelly said.
While the additional clinic will put SouthEast Lancaster Health Services closer to patients in the city's north, Kelly said many have already been finding their way to the organization's clinics.
SouthEast gets 15,000 patient visits annually, with people coming from 67 of the county's 69 zip codes to seek treatment.
"We've seen steady increases for several years in demand for medical and dental services," he said.
To answer that demand, SouthEast Lancaster Health Services officials began looking for an additional clinic site about two years ago.
The organization has financial partners working with it to purchase and renovate the Arch Street site, Kelly said. The zoning meeting was the first public disclosure of the project, and Kelly declined to name the partners until a formal announcement is made.
The building which SouthEast is acquiring was built in 1886 by the Edison Electric Illuminating Co., becoming what was the first site in the city where commercial electricity was produced.
According to newspaper records, Thomas Alva Edison helped erect the building as one of the first power plants to generate electricity for his incandescent light bulb.
Initially, it produced enough electricity to light 4,400 10-candle-power lamps in city homes and businesses. Equipment was added in 1889 to provide arc lighting for streets.
The building was being used as a warehouse by S.S. Bertz moving and storage company until it was acquired and renovated into office space in 1984 by Medical Practice Associates, a partnership led by Dr. H. Peter DeGreen, newspaper records show.
In recent years, the building was the home of Kelly Michener Advertising.
The ad agency was bought by Cimbrian, which this May moved the operation into the renovated Swisher tobacco warehouse, now the Prince Street Centre, at 425 N. Prince St.
E-mail: bharris@lnpnews.com