Walk-in Primary Care Facility Site Plan for Blockbuster Property Still Under Review

Fresh Market, Wachovia Bank and Firestone were all candidates to fill the empty Blockbuster and Ski Market building at 339 West Main Street, but now Hartford Hospital has presented a site plan application to open a walk-in primary care center on the property.

 “There is a [shortage] of primary care physicians,”  Karen Goyette, vice president of strategic planning and business at Hartford Hospital, said at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Tuesday night.

That was a notion that the commission was in favor of overall.

“We’d like to see the facility here,” Duane Starr, planning and zoning commission chairman, said.

While patients would not be able to get surgery at the proposed facility, the walk-in feature would offer an alternative option for diagnostic primary care.

The proposal was initially tagged as an urgent care center, but Mark Shipman, the attorney representing the applicants, said that it is more of a “medical office building.”

“We’re utilizing the existing structure,” Mark Fey, partner at Don Hammerberg Associates said, describing the site plans. “We’re adding vertical element to building to bring it up to the level of what we have across the street.”

The architecture firm filed an application in the planning office two weeks ago, requesting site plan approval to "modify the interior and facade of the existing building to house an urgent care facility," according to the agenda.

The site plan shows the addition of two stories to the 11,000-square-foot building, which Fey said would make it more visible from the road.

The plan would also reduce the amount of parking spaces from 95 to 85, with about 10 percent of parking designated for handicapped individuals.

Lexham Avon, LLC of Westport has owned the building since Dec. 17, 2004, according to town assessment records, and would rent the space to Hartford Hospital. The cost value of the property is listed as $1,600,660.

Since Ski Market left the building space adjacent to the former Blockbuster, property owner Lexham Avon, LLC has had difficulty finding another tenant. When Blockbuster closed in September the entire building became vacant.

The adjacent space was difficult to fill because of an issue with the support columns in the building, but Fey said that his firm would upgrade the building to meet all building codes.

The application was tabled until the next commission meeting on March 15.