By Bill Parry
A medical facility in the Rockaways will nearly double in size to better serve the community of Averne, city officials said. The project will expand the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center, increasing the facility’s examination rooms by 50 percent, and bring new medical services to the federally-designated Medically Underserved Area.
The health center will expand its current 22,000-square-foot facility to an adjacent city-owned parcel, where it will build over 20,000-square-feet of new healthcare space. The city Economic Development Corporation and the Addabbo Family Health Center recently closed on the sale of the long-vacant site.
“The expansion of the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Heath Center means more low-income and medically underserved patients will gain access to critical care in the Rockaways,” EDC President Maria Torres-Springer said. “In an area that’s experienced so much disinvestment, we are proud to see this expansion join the tide of tangible change we’re seeing across the peninsula — building on recent city investments like Citywide Ferry Service, the Rockaway Boardwalk reconstruction and Mayor de Blasio’s $91 million commitment to revitalize downtown Far Rockaway.”
The project will expand the facility’s offering of core medical services, which include internal medicine/family practice; obstetrics/gynecology; pediatrics and dental. The family health center will provide physical therapy, a new offering for Addabbo. Based on projections, the expansion will increase the facility’s annual patient intake by over 24,000 visitors.
“This new expansion of the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center will help fill the service gap incurred with the 2012 shutdown of Peninsula Hospital Center and the recent closures of several other local health care facilities,” said Borough President Melinda Katz, who allocated $3 million from her discretionary funds toward the project. “The expansion will enable the center to better meet the growing medical needs of the community, especially those who are uninsured and underserved.”
The health center, an 1199 SEIU unionized facility, currently employs 80 percent of its workforce from the community and it is committed to filling permanent jobs through HireNYC, a city program that connects low-income New Yorkers to job opportunities through the city’s economic development projects.
“The Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center is one of the few bright spots in health care on the Rockaway peninsula, serving low-income working families and immigrants,” City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) said. This new expansion will bring more specialty medical services right here for local residents, while also adding neatly 100 construction jobs and more than 30 permanent jobs in the center.” He added health-care services are always at the top of resident’s wish lists.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
