Suncoast Community Health Centers Inc. is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month. By the time it turns 41, it will have two new clinics open in East Hillsborough.
On June 23 at the 508 N. Maryland Ave. location, CEO Brad Herremans told clinic staffers that Suncoast has plans to add two new locations: one in Thonotosassa and a new building in Plant City. The announcement came during the staff’s office celebration of Suncoast’s 40th anniversary.
“Our communities and patients are using us more, so we need to be able to service them efficiently,” public relations manager Amy Nizamoff said. “We’ve just got to grow what we’ve got.”
The Thonotosassa clinic, offering family medicine and pediatric services, will be the first of the two to open. Located in the Winn-Dixie shopping plaza at 9535 E. Fowler Ave., Herremans says it will begin seeing adult and child patients August 1 and will bring aboard an additional five to six new staff members.
“It’s a relatively small clinic, but a very nice clinic,” Herremans said. “Brand new, so we’re pretty excited about that.”
The other big news of the day was that the two existing Plant City clinics are set to merge with the creation of a two-story, 24,000-square foot building at 801 E. Baker St.
Herremans said plans to build and move into this new clinic have been in the works for “the better part of four years,” and that the move would solve several problems currently facing both existing Plant City clinics.
“At the two clinics, we couldn’t really expand services like we wanted to expand in our current structures,” he said. “The new building’s going to give us the chance to do that. That’s what drove it — the growth in the area and the continual need for our services.”
The new building will allow Suncoast to expand the pharmacy and begin offering pediatric dentistry and optometry services. Herremans also said that the new clinic will expand rooms and fix the problems both current locations face with the parking lots.
“Room constraints has been a problem for us for a long time,” he said. “Parking is a considerable issue in our two clinics now. The new site gives us expanded parking.“
Herremans said staff from both clinics will move over to the new building and that 15 to 20 new employees will be added.
Plans and renderings for the new building are expected to be completed soon, and Herremans said the project will then be available for potential contractors to bid on. After the move, Nizamoff said, the buildings at Maryland Avenue and 502 N. Mobley St. will be put up for sale.
The Baker Street clinic is expected to open in May or June 2018 and will be Suncoast’s ninth brick-and-mortar clinic in the East Hillsborough area. Suncoast also has two mobile units that travel the area.
“We’re just trying to improve the health of our communities,” Nizamoff said.