WATERVLIET >> A new community health center will open in a former supermarket in Watervliet by the end of winter.
The Watervliet Plaza site, at 1804 Second Ave., will be the third location for the Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center. The location was home to the city’s Price Chopper until a new, 39,000-square-foot store opened on 19th Street last June.
The new health facility will be a full-service center, with dental care, primary care and behavioral health care provided to patients. The center will accept Medicaid and most other types of insurances, allowing the center to help and care for as many patients as possible.
The 5,700-square-foot facility will have five medical exam rooms and three rooms for the dental practice.
“Work is currently being finished up to the interior of the facility, and we don’t have a set grand opening date yet. We are just shooting for late winter to open this new health center,” said Maureen Yee, marketing director for Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center Inc. of Albany.
Prior to starting interior work on the building, Schyuler Companies, the property’s owner, has been working on finishing up exterior work since getting local government approval. The center will be using about half of the space Price Chopper once occupied; it is unclear what the other half of the building will be used for.
About 15 people will be employed at the new location, and officials expect to have the ability to serve 3,000 of the 5,000 underserved potential patients in that area.
A $600,000 grant will help with some operational costs, but the center is investing about $900,000 of its own money into developing the site.
“I know that some of patients from our Albany location are excited for the new center to open in Watervliet since a lot of those patients do live in Rensselaer County,” said Yee.
The Whitney Young centers in Troy and Albany served nearly 19,000 people in 2014, 79 percent of whom could not afford private health insurance. About 23 percent of those who use the center do not have health insurance, while 56 percent have Medicaid, 7 percent have Medicare and 11 percent carry private insurance.
“We are just really excited to be opening the new location up soon, and we are hoping to be able to draw patients from all across Rensselaer County now,” said Yee.
Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center Inc. is a community-based, nonprofit corporation that provides needed primary medical, dental and behavioral health care to some of the most vulnerable populations in the community. The center started in Albany about four decades ago.
Nicholas Buonanno can be reached at 290-3941.