New clinic to bring health services to South Toledo

4,000 square-foot building will also house credit union on the basement level

The former South Branch library building on Broadway Street will soon be home to a medical clinic and the Nueva Esperanza Community Credit union, officials announced today.

Standing in the atrium of what will someday host primary care services for the surrounding community, local elected officials, representatives from the credit union and medical professionals lauded the beginning of what they called “a great partnership.”

The original South Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

The 4,000 square-foot building will soon house primary care, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and some laboratory services on the first floor as Compassion Health Toledo, and the credit union on the basement level. 

Dr. Anne Ruch, an OB/GYN with ProMedica and executive director of Compassion Health Toledo, said the idea for the health center came after working with the Lifeline Toledo mobile clinic and seeing a desperate need for health services in the neighborhood.

“It was almost three years ago that myself and two other doctors saw this building and thought, ’Wow, the architecture of this building looks like it’s someone with outstretched arms trying to provide help for those in need,’” she said. 

Nueva Esperanza is currently operating out of a small storefront at 1232 Broadway St. Both the credit union and the health care center will have Spanish-speaking employees to better serve the predominantly Latino community in the neighborhood. 

“I have a great love for this neighborhood,” said state Rep. Mike Sheehy (D., Oregon). ”What a perfect combination—we have a good health system being set up and an opportunity for capital for young families and small businesses.”

The project is funded by $300,000 in state grants and support from ProMedica, which obtained the building from the Lucas County Land Bank. It is a collaboration among  ProMedica, Compassion Health Toledo, the credit union, and neighborhood revitalization organization Historic South. It is expected to open in the spring or summer of 2017. 

Rudolph Libbe Group, Paul R. Sullivan Jr. AIA LLC, and MDA Engineering, Inc. are providing design and construction services. 

The building is the former home to the South Toledo library branch, at Broadway and Langdon Street, which opened Jan. 16, 1918. The library moved into its current location at 1736 Broadway St. in 2004. 

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.