Commercial Appeal - Memphis Health Center tops off $5.6M expansion

Memphis City Council members Harold Collins and Myron Lowery Tuesday stood in the parking lot turned construction zone where the Memphis Health Center is expanding on E.H. Crump Boulevard near Danny Thomas.

“I was a patient at this facility as a kid,” said Collins, 51. “When your father is a cabdriver and your mother never worked out of the house, you can’t go to a pediatric service provider somewhere else. You’ve got to come where it’s free.”

It was the second time since a ground breaking in October that political leaders gathered to acknowledge the $5.6 million expansion and renovation of the federally funded, nonprofit Memphis Health Center, founded in 1970.

Done in phases while the facility remains open, the expansion aims to increase health care access for uninsured and low-income Memphians. It will allow 11,500 more patient visits and add $735,000 to $1 million in revenue, said Dr. Barry-Lewis Harris, chief medical officer.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich attended Tuesday’s topping out ceremony. It marked the highest point for girders during construction.

Cohen... said $4.7 million in federal funds for the project came from $1.5 billion made available to federally qualified health centers by the Affordable Care Act approved by Democrats in Congress and the White House.

The center continues to raise funds for the project, including donations of $250,000 by the Assisi Foundation and $10,000 from Brown Missionary Baptist Church in Southaven.

“We just believe in giving back to the community,” said the church’s senior pastor, Bartholomew Orr.

Memphis Health Center chief executive Willeen Hastings praised the companies involved in the project, including CBRE/Memphis, A2H Inc. and B&B Specialty Contractors.