PBMC Health is looking to build a “hospital annex” on Route 58 in Gateway Plaza — in the parking lot in front of Bob’s Discount Furniture.
The hospital needs additional space to expand and continue providing services demanded by a growing community in an innovative way, PBMC Health president and CEO Andrew Mitchell said tonight.
PBMC plans to build a smaller version of what the hospital has successfully created in Manorville, Mitchell said, where it opened an urgent care facility and physicians’ offices in the fall of 2013. The Riverhead expansion will also likely include imaging facilities, Mitchell said.
There won’t be any overnight stays or inpatient admissions at the new location, he said.
PBMC is proposing a 3,500-square-foot, free-standing building. It is also seeking simultaneous approval of a 1,900-square-foot expansion.
The new building will be constructed by the site developer, Steve Lerner — “a progressive developer whose family has been involved with the medical center for many years,” Mitchell said — and the hospital will be a tenant, as it is in Manorville.
“It’s exciting for us,” Mitchell said. “It’s a reflection of the fact that more and more care is being provided on an ambulatory basis. It gives us a chance to expand and provide services to the community in an innovative way.”
The Riverhead Planning Board today set a Dec. 18 public hearing on the PBMC proposal. That meeting will begin at 3 p.m.
Planning board members expressed reservations about the proposal. Ed Densieski questioned why a new building is necessary when a portion of the building where Bob’s is located is still vacant. Stan Carey and Lyle Wells expressed concerns about traffic flow on Route 58 in the vicinity of the site. No one from PBMC Health was present at today’s meeting.
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