Penobscot Community Health Care to buy former MBNA complex in Belfast
Courtesy / Boulos Co.
The former Bank of America complex at 21 Schoodic Drive, in Belfast, is under contract to be sold to Penobscot Community Health Care.
Bangor-based Penobscot Community Health Care is under contract to buy the sprawling Bank of America complex on Schoodic Drive in Belfast, with plans to move its busy Seaport Community Health Center into larger space at the site and expand services.
PCHC is under agreement with Stag Industrial Holdings LLC to buy the five-building 317,579-square-foot complex at 21 Schoodic Drive. Seaport Community Health Center has about 8,000 Belfast-area patients and will expand services, with plans to more than double the 11,800 square feet it leases at neighboring 53 Schoodic Drive.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The system wouldn't disclose details about plans are for other space on the 142-acre site, where Bank of America is a major tenant, since the deal hasn't been finalized. PCHC will work with Belfast and Waldo County officials and the community to determine the most appropriate use for the additional space, a news release announcing the move said.
“We cannot meet the needs in the community given the very significant space constraints at our current practice location,” said President and CEO Lori Dwyer.
“We cannot hire enough providers to meet the growing demand for integrated primary care services because we have run out of space for them. We lack sufficient space to hold mental health and recovery groups, and we know there are other health and wellness needs that could be met in a bigger location, such as dental care. More space allows us to think creatively and expansively about how we provide those services to the many people who have asked for them.”
The campus was built as a call center for MBNA in 1997, and at one time employed nearly 2,000 people at the site. Bank of America acquired MBNA in 2006, and, in 2015, reduced its footprint at the campus to less than 100,000 square feet. That same year, Boston-based Stag Industrial Holdings bought the property, leasing space to Bank of America, which is in one building. Stag put the property up for auction in September 2019, but the $5.95 million top bid didn't meet the reserve price.
While some businesses, including OnProcess Technology, leased some of the remaining space in recent years, much of it has gone vacant, despite a lease rate of $10 a square foot.
PCHC expanding system-wide
PCHC plans to conduct community health needs assessments and participate in the Waldo County Community Health Needs Assessment process this fall. The sale is expected to close by the end of the year, and renovations will have to be done on the space, Kate Carlisle, PCHC director of mission engagement, told Mainebiz. She said that the center will likely open to patients sometime next year.
“We are serving 8,000 people in the community — with family medicine, mental health and recovery services, and more — and we know that the needs will only increase going forward," Carlisle said. "This project will allow us to continue our current services, serve more people, and even perhaps expand.”
PCHC said that expansive parking — the complex has 1,259 spaces — and well-maintained buildings will allow the health care system to build more exam rooms, provider work spaces, a larger pharmacy and additional clinical space.
PCHC's Belfast site currently offers primary care, including pediatric, adult and geriatric care integrated with mental health, primary care pharmacy, walk-in care, recovery, social work and care management services.
The move is the latest for the state's largest federally qualified health center, which has more than 65,000 patients in Penobscot, Hancock and Waldo counties. In the past year and a half, the health care system has:
- Opened a new primary care practice focusing on adult wellness, including mental health
- Expanded recovery services
- Increased access to medically assisted treatment for opioid use disorder (which surged during the pandemic)
- Improved patient access through the use of technology, including telehealth and self-scheduling
- Built community care services that serve residents of nursing homes and other facilities
- Launched a nurse practitioner residency program
- Partnered with other organizations to increase access in rural areas, including Jackman and Winterport
- Established the East Coast's first dental therapist, a new position that allows some functions formerly reserved for dentists and increases dental care access for rural residents.
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