BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio – University Hospitals has opened an urgent-care clinic at the southwest corner of Ohio 82 and Interstate 77, part of a 5-acre, three-building development proposed last year.

The clinic, at 9000 Treeworth Boulevard, occupies part of one building, measuring about 12,000 square feet, that will also house two additional tenants, possibly a quick-serve restaurant and a retail store.

Meanwhile, construction of a freestanding, 5,300-square-foot Chick-fil-A is underway just east of the University Hospitals building. The restaurant will include a drive-thru.

The third building is a future phase of the project. If built, it would stand on the southwest portion of the 5 acres, behind the site of a former BP station that was torn down to make room for the development.

The Broadview Heights Planning Commission approved the three-building development in April.

The project’s developer is Robert Abramovich of Butterfli Holdings 043 LLC, which purchased the property for $2.4 million in December 2022.

Abramovich is also executive vice president and director of operations at Flicore, a real estate development firm, according to his LinkedIn page.

It’s not clear if or how Flicore and Butterfli Holdings are connected. Both companies are in Pepper Pike.

Urgent campaign

The University Hospitals urgent care center opened Dec. 22 and is the first business launched in the development.

The center is one of 25 urgent care clinics that University Hospitals has opened in Northeast Ohio. The clinics treat non-life-threatening illnesses, injuries and cuts. Other services include X-rays, lab tests, EKGs and dispensing of medications.

The center can also test patients for flu, COVID-19 and other viruses and infections. Patients can walk in without appointments or make appointments online.

Last year, Abramovich told the planning commission that University Hospitals is moving urgent care services out of large hospitals and creating separate clinics.

The idea is to alleviate the burden on hospital-based emergency departments, allowing them to focus more on critical and life-threatening cases.

Separating urgent care from emergency rooms is also expected to cut back on patient wait times.

“Our UH Urgent Care delivery model aims to provide the most convenient and valuable care for our patients,” University Hospitals’ Chief Operating Officer Paul Hinchey said in a press release.

“Having easy access to urgent care locations provides a more affordable option than emergency departments for patients who don’t have a primary care physician but need immediate, non-life-threatening medical attention,” Hinchey said.

University Hospitals is partnering with WellStreet Urgent Care, an Atlanta-based urgent care specialist established in 2011, on all of its new urgent-care clinics.

On its website, WellStreet says it helps medical institutions rapidly open urgent-care clinics and provide “best-in-class” patient experiences.

A little history

About nine years ago, University Hospitals built and opened an outpatient health center and emergency department at the northeast corner of state route 82 and I-77 in Broadview Heights.

The center, today called the University Hospitals Broadview Heights Health Center, used to provide urgent care services but that function has now moved to the new clinic on Treeworth.

The health center also no longer contains an emergency department. Its services now include diagnostic imaging and radiology, general surgery, heart and vascular care, lab testing, OB/GYN care, sports medicine and orthopedics, pediatrics, primary care and psychiatry.

Meanwhile, previous development plans for the same site at the southwest corner of route 82 and I-77 — where the urgent care clinic just opened — have fallen through for various reasons. Those plans included:

A similar three-building development, proposed in 2020, that included a Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center, a Starbucks and a Panera Bread. Abramovich had also proposed that plan.A two-story office building, which might have contained a restaurant or two, proposed in 2016 by The Terra Group. The project died after city council members expressed concern about how it would affect traffic flow.An office-retail complex, proposed in 2014, on a larger piece of land measuring 24 acres. It was proposed by The NRP Group, then based in Garfield Heights, but the planning commission never warmed to the plan.

Original source: US