Anyone driving by the intersection of San Andres and Micheltorena streets — the epicenter of the city’s Westside commercial corridor — will notice the startlingly sudden emergence of a vacant lot where a nondescript two-story office building had previously stood. Demolition crews dispatched by the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics leveled that lot to make way for a new, much-expanded Westside medical clinic.
Demolition work started April 21, and construction is scheduled to last until September 2026. Out of the rubble will rise a new, 19,000-square-foot, three-story medical clinic that will provide much more expansive and accommodating digs than the one the clinic has operated right across Micheltorena Street since the 1970s.
According to Chief Executive Officer Mahdi Ashrafian, the new clinic will have the capacity to take care of 8,307 unique clients a year and up to 30,400 client visits a year. Dental services will be offered on the third floor with six dental operatories. On the second floor will be medical and behavioral medicine offices, and the ground floor will feature a welcome center, a community room, and a kitchen for patient education and group visits. When built, the new offices will offer nine medical exam rooms, six dental offices, and two behavioral wellness exam rooms. This will accommodate four to five primary care doctors, three to four dentists, and two behavioral health specialists…