Officials from The Wright Center are requesting zoning approvals to expand the nonprofit’s clinic and education facility in Wilkes-Barre’s downtown business district.
The Wright Center needs a special exception to construct a 45,000-square foot expansion to the existing medical clinic at 169 N. Pennsylvania Ave. that would include an educational component for students and faculty, according to a legal ad announcing zoning hearings scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.
The nonprofit also is requesting:
- A variance to include a 4,000-square-foot community center within the proposed building expansion.
- A special exception for the joint use of the adjacent parking lot for the community center and medical clinic.
- And a variance to waive any screening requirements pertaining to the proposed parking area.
Wright Center officials also will request permission to comply with a section of the zoning ordinance related to grading, pavement and drainage through the submission of a land development plan to the city planning commission.
Wright Center officials asked city council on Sept. 19 to authorize Mayor George C. Brown’s administration to apply for a $200,000 Local Share Account grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority on the nonprofit’s behalf to help fund the project.
The Wright Center, which operates 12 clinics throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania serving about 35,000 patients annually, opened about 9,000 square feet of the Wilkes-Barre site for a medical clinic in 2023 and finished sections for behavioral health and dental clinics there in July and August, Ron Daniels, chief administrative officer, had told council.
Work on a remaining portion of the building should be done by early January and, if a new market tax credit is approved, officials would build the three-story, 45,000-square-foot addition, enabling an expansion of services such as long-term health care maintenance for patients suffering with diabetes, hypertension and other conditions that require ongoing attention, Daniels had said.
Noting that heavy equipment brought in for constriction would damage the sidewalks and parking area, Aimee Wechsler, director of government affairs for the Wright Center’s Wilkes-Barre health city hub, had said the LSA grant would fund an exterior renovation and beautification project to ensure patients can access the building safely while beautifying the neighborhood with trees, green space and public art.
The Wright Center is a federally qualified health center lookalike, offering services on a sliding fee schedule; 80% of their patients are on Medicaid or Medicare, and 20% have commercial insurance, but the clinic doesn’t turn anyone away, Wechsler had said.
We provide behavioral health services, dental care, primary care services – it’s one-stop shopping. You come in, you can pretty much get all of the care you need for everyone,” she had said.
Signs currently on the building identify it as The Wright Center for Community Health and The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, as the nonprofit also provides residency, fellowship, training and clerkship opportunities for medical students.
Also on the zoning board’s agenda is considering an application from CKPA2 LLC for a special exception to change the non-conforming use of a property at 285 Old River Road from a vacant, 3,000-square-foot commercial building to a laundromat containing 40 machines, and a variance to waive three parking spaces for the proposed use.
Originally Published:
