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What’s going in the old post office across from the courthouse on Clinton St.? — Jason, Iowa City, via the Your Village feature on LV’s homepage.
Normally when there’s a Your Village question about a construction project in Iowa City, the answer can be summed up in one word: apartments. But not this time.
When the post office moved to Pepperwood Plaza in southeast Iowa City in 2015, it left 61 percent of the federal government’s office building on Clinton Street empty, according to the General Services Administration (GSA), the agency responsible for maintaining federal government buildings. In April 2017, the GSA announced that empty space would be filled by a new Veterans Health Administration community clinic.
Among the health services that will be offered by the new clinic are dentistry, prosthetics (including a prosthetics laboratory), physical therapy and rehabilitation services. There will also be education services, as well as a compensation and pension clinic.
“This is the first time GSA’s Region 6 [which covers Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri] has completed a project of this scale that involves clinical space, and is one of the few projects like this that GSA has done nationwide,” Jeffory Meyer, a GSA project manager, said in a press release when the project was announced. “We’re excited to get construction started following several months of planning and design.”
Plans call for construction to be completed by July, when the Veterans Health Administration is scheduled to move into its new space. According to the GSA, the new clinic will employ approximately 150 people.
I love this What’s happening feature. A real keeper. Just posted the P.O. s future on my own facebook page.