Nonprofit health services provider Community Health Association of Spokane, better known as CHAS, is remodeling part of its Urgent Care-Valley location at 1502 N. Vercler to include a new dental clinic.

Kelly Halverson, vice president of administrative services for CHAS, says the nearly $1.6 million remodel will enable the clinic to serve low-income Spokane Valley residents in need of access to dental care.

“To address the local (access) gap, CHAS developed a project that will enable access to 9,900 dental visits annually and create 17.5 new permanent jobs in Spokane Valley,” Halverson says.

The dental clinic will occupy 5,600 square feet of space on the 18,700-square-foot second floor.

Spokane-based Bouten Construction Co. is the contractor on the project, and Bernardo|Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, designed it.

Ryan Zane, associate principal at Bernardo|Wills, says the remodel involves three parts.

“The urgent care part included remodeling the main floor into urgent care; it had been operating on the second floor,” Zane says. “The basement level, they turned into a call center. And then they just started working on the dental clinic.” 

Halverson says the project began in late March and is scheduled to be completed by the end of July. CHAS is considering design options for other locations, Halverson says, but has yet to finalize those plans.

A grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides $1 million for the renovation itself. The remaining $581,000 for new dental equipment comes from Washington taxpayers; it was included in the state’s 2017-2019
capital budget.