Waukesha - The Waukesha Plan Commission has approved plans to turn two buildings in the North Street Market shopping center, which has stood largely empty since it was built in 2005, into a community health clinic.
The panel on Wednesday gave architectural approval to a 1,200 square foot addition that will combine two 8,000-square foot buildings. No Common Council action is needed. A land split that divides the two buildings from a third in the shopping center is still needed. Clinic owners are buying the two buildings on North St. west of Barstow St. from developer Bryce Styza's partnership, which still owns the third building occupied by several small businesses.
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center and ProHealth Care are partnering to open a primary medical care clinic intended to serve low-income, uninsured and underinsured Waukesha area residents. A $2.6 million federal grant to the Sixteenth Street center and a $2 million fundraising campaign by the Waukesha Memorial Hospital Foundation will finance the project.
Ald. Roger Patton unsuccessfully asked to have approval of the project, which is in his district, tabled for two weeks because one business at the center, Jimmy John's sandwich shop, had parking concerns. However, the shopping center is next to the Waukesha Transit Center which has 500 parking stalls, many of them empty most days.