Syracuse, NY -- Syracuse Community Health Center will cut the ribbon Friday evening on its new $22.5 million main facility along South Salina Street, a block from its longtime home.
It will be open to patients on Dec. 11.
The health center, which caters to 30,000 primarily low-income residents, has been planning the new facility for more than a decade. But after nearly scrapping the plans a few years ago, the project came to fruition with the help of $19 million in state money.
The 56,000-square-foot facility at 930 S. Salina St. is actually smaller than the center’s 70-year-old home, but is intended to provide a better patient experience due to better design. The original facility, at 819 S. Salina St., is really three buildings that have been connected over the years.
The new facility includes an improved, more welcoming breast care center, as well as the center’s primary care, dental services, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology services. Quick Care and behavioral services will remain at the old facility.
The center, founded in 1978, is one of about 1,300 community health centers nationwide created by federal legislation that provides some funding for the facilities. The centers are required by law to cater to medically underserved populations. The health center is open to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
“For many years, it has been a dream of SCH to construct a modern facility with the latest in medical design concepts on the South Side of Syracuse,” Mark Hall, president and CEO of Syracuse Community Health, said in a news release.
The new home is one of several projects that are transforming the southern gateway to downtown Syracuse. JMA Wireless’s $50 million factory is adjacent to the south, while a new housing and commercial development, Salina 1st, is readying construction across the street. Not far away, Syracuse’s old central high school is being returned to use as a STEAM school that will welcome students from the city and across Onondaga County.
Syracuse Community Health opens its new 56,000-square-foot facility at 930 S. Salina St. It's actually smaller than the center’s 70-year-old home, but is intended to provide a better patient experience due to better design.Douglass Dowty | syracuse.com