New VA clinic eyes Fore Street
City officials are close to approving the sale of property on Thames Street to a developer so he can renovate a building he owns and bring in a new tenant, a Department of Veterans Affairs' health care clinic.
Greg Mitchell, Portland's economic development director, told Mainebiz the Community Development Committee will take up the issue when it meets Wednesday evening at City Hall.
Michael Marino has proposed purchasing 2,775 square feet of a city-owned gravel parking lot on Thames Street for $89,000 to turn into a parking lot for a new VA health clinic. Marino plans to spend $2 million to renovate 20,000 square feet of a building he owns on 144 Fore St., which is adjacent to the gravel lot, according to city documents.
Mitchell says the sale, if approved by the committee and then the city council, would not compromise the city's ability to redevelop the rest of the property it owns on Thames Street.
Sal Voter, a contract specialist with the Togus Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta, says the VA will actually lease less than 10,000 square feet inside the 144 Fore St. building for 10 years. He would not disclose the lease terms.
Ryan Lilly, associate medical director at the Togus VA center, says the federal agency wants to relocate its mental health clinic on Forest Avenue to 144 Fore St. and expand it to include a primary health care clinic. He says the VA hopes to open the new facility by the end of this year or the beginning of 2011 and is in the process of hiring two physicians, a physician's assistant and up to three office support personnel to staff it. Lilly expects the new facility will serve up to 3,000 patients a year.
"This will be our first attempt to have primary care within the city limits of Portland," says Lilly. The new clinic will be the eighth the VA has created in Maine to better serve veterans. The other clinics are located in Caribou, Calais, Rumford, Lincoln, Bangor and Saco; part-time clinics are located in Houlton and Fort Kent, he says. Plans are in the works to build a larger primary care and mental health VA clinic in Lewiston-Auburn.
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