Chippewa Valley Free Clinic Finds New Home

The Chippewa Valley Free Clinic (CVFC) is announcing its purchase of a new facility to become its permanent medical home! The Clinic is currently making plans to move from its current downtown location at the Syverson Lutheran Home, 816 Porter Avenue, to a new location at 1030 Oak Ridge Drive, located in the professional medical area off Clairemont Avenue in Eau Claire.

The building was constructed in 1972 for Drs. Kristo and Nyberg. The clinic will be making light renovations before moving into the vacant 5,500sq ft on the top floor of the building. The tenants in the building’s ground level will not be displaced. In its new home, the clinic will grow from 5 exam rooms to 6 exam rooms, from 2 dental chairs to 3 dental chairs, improve the workflow for the Clinic’s staff and volunteers and offer the patients a more traditional clinic experience.

The clinic, which provides basic health care to those who have no reasonable alternative, will conduct business as usual in its current location through mid-November.

Pablo Properties, Commonweal Development Corporation and Market Family Investments are the purchasers of the Syverson Lutheran Home property and have generously assisted CVFC in its search for a new, permanent home and are among several generous donors working to provide a more secure future for the free clinic.

Ryan Erickson, Leasing Specialist at Commonweal Development aided the clinic in their search for their forever home. “It has been an honor to work with the Free Clinic and find them a property that better fits their needs. I feel like this building was made for them.”
Maribeth Woodford, Executive Director of CVFC, said that the clinic is hoping to make the move to the new facility sometime shortly after the official launch of the capital campaign needed to purchase the new building.

“Although several generous donors have come forward, we will need the support and help of the whole community to make this new medical home possible,” Woodford said. We believe it will be a huge advantage for both our patients and our many professional healthcare volunteers to be so close to many of the other hospitals and clinics that assist us in our mission.

Woodford added that as a renter, the clinic has been unexpectedly forced to move three times in the past six years, and the constant disruptions take away from the clinic’s main mission. As owners of their new building, the clinic will have control over their future.
The top priority of CVFC is to make sure this transition is as seamless as possible.

“As the community’s safety-net clinic, we are most concerned about our vulnerable population,” Woodford said. “We are committed to ensuring that all of our critical services, such as the medication dispensary, do not experience interruption of service for our patients.”

Maribeth Woodford, Executive Director
Chippewa Valley Free Clinic