by: Scott Nishimura
snishimura@bizpress.net
source: Fort Worth Business Press
Cook Children’s has agreed to build a 12,000-square-foot medical and dental clinic in the Renaissance Square development in Southeast Fort Worth, an important addition to the long-underserved area’s health care offerings.
The planned $7 million facility, to be at the southeast corner of East Berry Street and Mitchell Boulevard, will be Cook’s sixth clinic, but the first to combine medical, dental and behavioral health, Larry Tubb, Sr., a Cook Children’s Health Care System vice president, said.
The goal: “Allowing families to access all of these (services) in one location and providing a more holistic approach to improving the health of children,” Tubb said.
Cook’s entry follows on the developers’ aggressive push to secure the YMCA Fort Worth, which wants to consolidate its two Southeast branches into a newly built one in Renaissance.
The YMCA is nearing entering a contract to acquire a site in the Mason Heights side of Renaissance, said Hap Baggett, the Mason Heights developer who took the lead on developing Renaissance Square, which is anchored by a Walmart that opened last year.
Baggett has said the Y is a lynchpin that would persuade other health and well-being providers to take the risk on Southeast Fort Worth. Besides strong anchors, the ability to enter a new development is also critical to these providers, Baggett has said.
“It just makes us a destination for other medical uses, which we badly need,” said Baggett, who likened Southeast Fort Worth to a “retail desert” before Renaissance drew Walmart. Baggett says the area is also a “medical desert” that forces residents to drive miles out of the area to reach providers.
John Flint, executive vice president of Lockard Development, one of the partners in Renaissance Square LLC, which is selling the clinic site to Cook Children’s, said Cook will improve Southeast Fort Worth’s offering of various services related to the well-being of residents.
Those include after-school programs and even job training, offered by ACH Family Services, which is in the Renaissance development.
“All of these are things Renaissance Square is seeking to enhance in Southeast Fort Worth and really start a renaissance,” Flint said. “The name is not an accident.”
Cook Children’s is under contract to buy the 1.3-acre site, Flint said.
Cook expects to purchase the site and break ground on the clinic before April 1, Tubb said. Cook expects completion of the $7 million facility and “first visit” by Sept 30, he said.
Initially, hours will be the same as Cook’s other neighborhood clinics, Tubb said. Those are open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and closed weekends.
“That may change depending on the communities’ response and need,” he said.
Cook Children’s has not determined how many people will work at the clinic, Tubb said.
Cook based its choice of the Renaissance Square site on several factors, Tubb said.
It has the largest number of households with children meeting the federal poverty guidelines, the largest pediatric population not already served by a Cook clinic (12,445 currently, expected to grow to 13,700 by 2016), and largest percentage of emergency room visits for pediatric primary care services.
Baggett says healthcare providers interested in Renaissance Square face a risk in working with an uninsured, or underinsured, population.
But, Tubb said, “Cook Children’s and our neighborhood clinics have a strong record of success in assisting eligible families to enroll and receive the funds already available to them through Medicaid and other governmental programs. Remember, Cook Children’s has five Neighborhood Clinics already serving similar communities in other parts of Fort Worth.”
Cook Children’s and the Y have been “staying in touch with each other’s plans (for Renaissance Square), with the aim of coordinating – not duplicating – programs on which we can collaborate to address the health issues of the children in Southeast Fort Worth,” Tubb said.
Tony Shuman, the Y CEO, has said the YMCA can much more effectively confront Southeast Fort Worth’s problems such as obesity, diabetes, and infant mortality from a location at Renaissance Square.
The Y has closed its nearby McDonald branch and put it up for sale as it looks to secure the funding for the Renaissance site.
Baggett’s partners have offered various financing terms to the Y. Once the Y agrees to buy the site from Baggett’s group, it would then launch a fundraising campaign to secure the money to build the branch.
Baggett launched the 200-acre Renaissance Square after buying the property at U.S. 287 and East Berry Street in 2005.
His group subsequently sold the 67-acre retail piece to the Lockard-led partnership.
Besides the Y, Baggett’s group is working on an agreement with Columbia Residential of Atlanta to build and manage 750 residential units, including single family, multifamily, town homes and senior living,
Columbia is seeking an incentive agreement with the city.