Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) has applied for a tax-exempt $3.9 million revenue bond to buy a former auto dealership building downtown and to remodel and equip it for its downtown clinic.


The nonprofit provider of medical and dental care to low-income residents plans to move its downtown clinic to the 12,000-square-foot former Saturn of Spokane property, at 1007 W. Second.


The expected costs associated with that move include $1.12 million to buy the property, $1.04 million to remodel the space, and $80,000 to equip the clinic, says Peg Hopkins, CHASs CEO.


The remaining $1.66 million would be used to pay off a loan for a building at 3919 N. Maple that CHAS bought in 2001, Hopkins says.


CHAS applied for the revenue bond through the Washington Health Care Facilities Authority, which expects to make a decision on the application April 10. If it approves the bond, CHAS expects to call for remodeling bids shortly after that date and hopes to complete construction by August, Hopkins says.


CHASs downtown clinic is located now in an 8,000-square-foot space it leases at 328 W. Sprague, across the street from the Intermodal Transportation Facility. The planned move will give the clinic 4,000 more square feet of floor space and a parking lot.


Off-street parking is critical for our patients, Hopkins says.


The added space also would allow CHAS to expand its X-ray, obstetric, and behavioral health services downtown.


Almost one-third of CHASs 26,600 registered patients are uninsured, Hopkins says. Of the uninsured, 18 percent are homeless, she says. In addition to its downtown and Maple Street facilities, the organization operates clinics in the Northeast Community Center, and in the Spokane Valley, CHAS employs 160 people and handles about 75,000 medical and dental visits a year, Hopkins says.


The new facility will be called the Denny Murphy Clinic, in recognition of Denice Denny Murphy, one of the associations founding members. Murphy died of cancer in 2001.


Northwest Architectural Co., of Spokane, has done the design work for the remodeling project.