HealthPartners signed the final agreement to purchase land from Luther Seminary on July 14. The land, which is across the street and on the north side of HealthPartners Como Clinic, will be the new location for the Como Clinic.
It is the same tract of land on which nonprofit developer Ecumen had proposed a year ago to build a 121-unit apartment building and 112-unit memory-care facility.
HealthPartners’ land purchase is the first step in a multi-year process that will start with an extensive community engagement and design phase. Groundbreaking is expected in 2018 and construction would take an estimated 18 months.
The current clinic will continue to offer all services until the new facility opens. The new building is expected to be roughly the same size as the current clinic and will offer similar services, including primary, specialty and urgent care, dental and pharmacy. HealthPartners plans to work with the neighborhood as the project progresses. A recent project that was similar to this is HealthPartners Nokomis Clinic near Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis. It opened in 2012 and was designed with input from nearby residents and includes an open environment that fits in with the historic neighborhood.
Como Clinic opened in 1957 as the first clinic for what was then Group Health. It was a new model that provided both medical care and health care financing. In 1992, Group Health merged with MedCenters to become HealthPartners.
