Health-care provider eyes Lewiston site, Lewiston Tribune, July 18, 2015
[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Company offering post-surgical physical therapy tells Lewiston port panel it is interested in lot
Intense physical therapy for patients recovering from knee, shoulder and hip replacements in an inpatient setting is the specialty of a business eyeing a vacant lot near Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Lewiston.
Advanced Health Care, which was founded by two brothers in Fruitland, Idaho, wants to acquire 3 acres within the Port of Lewiston’s Business and Technology Park, next to a building under construction by ClearView Eye Clinic. Robert Dellenbach, vice president of Advanced Health Care’s corporate development, spoke Friday at a port commission meeting.
The company expects it will build a 28-bed, 20,000-square-foot, multimillion-dollar complex in Lewiston and employ more than 35 full- and part-time employees, Dellenbach said.
“Don’t hold me to these numbers, because they are flexible until we get our engineering done,” he said.
They would staff a facility that serves a small niche in health care, following a model Dellenbach said is quite different from hospitals or nursing homes.
Patients stay two to three weeks and have two, one-on-one sessions with the same physical therapist each day so they can gain the maximum amount of mobility after their surgeries.
Advanced Health Care has been in existence for about a decade and has 24- to 48-bed locations in places like Phoenix, Denver, Meridian and Albuquerque. Dellenbach said it accepts Medicare for its upper-end services.
If Advanced Health Care proceeds with its Lewiston plans, it will likely take more than a year to get going, counting time for construction and to obtain state licenses.
The port commissioners asked questions, but didn’t take action on the matter or discuss a purchase price. The zoning at the Business and Technology Park allows for what Advanced Health Care would like to do and other uses such as manufacturing, Port Manager David Doeringsfeld said.
Advanced Health Care wouldn’t mind having a factory as a neighbor, Dellenbach said, but would prefer something similar to what his company does.
In other business Friday:
– Commissioners discussed a proposal from the city of Lewiston about doing $200,000 in road improvements along Colonel Wright Way later than previously agreed to. An original deadline was set for next summer. The street connects State Highway 128 with the city’s garbage transfer station.
City of Lewiston Public Works Director Chris Davies said it would be better to do the work after the port knows more about what tenants will occupy vacant lots along the road. The city agreed to the $200,000 as part of a deal to acquire the transfer station site. As an alternative, the city might also consider putting that money into other city roads in the port area, Davies said.
– The commission approved a lease for K&G Construction to use 6,000 square feet of space at the port’s mothballed container operations. K&G will pay $1,500 a month in the year-long agreement.
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Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261.
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