Samuel Rodgers Planning $15M Pediatric Wing at Health Campus

By Kevin Collison

Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center is planning to build a four-story pediatrics wing at Seventh and Euclid, the latest project in the works for its campus near downtown.

The health center’s plan for a what’s described as a two-level, 32,000 square-foot  medical office building atop a 382-space, two-level garage is scheduled to be reviewed by the City Plan Commission today.

Robert Theis, CEO of Samuel Rodgers, said the $15 million project is related to the expansion of the Medicaid program in Missouri.

“We wanted to add capacity and with this expansion we’d nearly double our medical capacity at our current location,” Theis said.

The facility would allow the health center to provide a one-stop location where people could obtain well-child visits, be screened for dental needs and receive behavioral health treatment. The existing pediatrics area would be converted to serve more adults.

The pediatrics wing would be at the corner of Seventh and Euclid in the upper right corner and connected to the existing health center. (Site plan from City Plan Commission application)

Theis said the health center is currently raising money for the project, and the State of Missouri has committed to provide half the funds. The health center is hoping to break ground this fall and the pediatrics wing would take about 18 months to complete.

The city planning staff, which supports the plan, said the project would occupy about five acres southeast of Seventh and Euclid.

The staff report said the project application indicates the building would be constructed primarily of multiple color metal panels accented with wooden planks. The architect is HJM Architects.

The pediatrics wing would be built adjacent to the existing Rodgers Health Center.

Samuel Rodgers also is partnering with Brinshore Development on a 62-unit apartment development on a five-acres site northeast of Ninth and Euclid on its campus.

That $16 million project will include two five-bedroom apartments among its mix of units, a rare housing option. Twenty-seven of the units offer opportunities for low-income households with rents no larger than 30 percent of their income.

The apartment development will include a 4,300 square-foot community center that will include event space and other neighborhood health and well-being services.