Maureen Wallenfang
Post Crescent
Published 8:46 AM EST Feb 28, 2020
Empty store spaces are slowly refilling in Grand Chute. But lately those taking the biggest big boxes haven’t been retailers. Urban Air Adventure Park set up in the former Gordmans, for example. Altitude Trampoline Park took the former Steve & Barry’s.
Now Catalpa Health is the latest to pick a retail space for non-retail uses.
The organization signed a lease to take most of the former Sears Outlet building in Grand Chute.
It’s at 4635 W. College Ave., near the corner of Casaloma Drive. Sears Outlet closed in August 2018. Before Sears Outlet, the building housed Circuit City.
Catalpa provides mental health and wellness services to kids. It offers counseling, psychiatric/medication management and psychological testing from birth through high school and early college ages.
It started in 2012 with 35 employees serving 4,500 kids.
“Last year we served over 9,000 children,” said Mary Downs, president and CEO. “Our team includes providers, case mangers and administrative staff and is now over 100,”
In the Appleton area, it is currently spread out over three different buildings.
“We’ll be able to have our Appleton-based providers in one building and have an improved patient flow,” she said. “A pharmacy provider will have a dispensing center. We don’t have the space to do that now. We’ll have more group therapy rooms.”
The $3.3 million building renovation costs are being paid for upfront by building owner Commercial Horizons and have been figured into Catalpa’s lease payments.
Re-configuring the big box space was the most affordable option, Downs said.
Catalpa needed 35,000 square feet, and it had specific requirements for offices, soundproofing and security. Each of its providers needs an office to meet patients privately. It needs to be near Interstate 41 for accessibility and have ample parking.
“We did a search of all the locations available. Building to meet our needs would be incredibly expensive,” Downs said. “Retrofitting in a lot of those cases would cost as much or more.”
Catalpa will begin seeing patients here in August.
The consolidation does not affect Catalpa clinics in Oshkosh and Waupaca, or on-site counselors in about 50 area schools.
Contact reporter Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.
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