Anyone driving by the intersection of San Andres and Micheltorena streets — the epicenter of the city’s Westside commercial corridor — will notice the startlingly sudden emergence of a vacant lot where a nondescript two-story office building had previously stood. Demolition crews dispatched by the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics leveled that lot to make way for a new, much-expanded Westside medical clinic.
Demolition work started April 21, and construction is scheduled to last until September 2026. Out of the rubble will rise a new, 19,000-square-foot, three-story medical clinic that will provide much more expansive and accommodating digs than the one the clinic has operated right across Micheltorena Street since the 1970s.
According to Chief Executive Officer Mahdi Ashrafian, the new clinic will have the capacity to take care of 8,307 unique clients a year and up to 30,400 client visits a year. Dental services will be offered on the third floor with six dental operatories. On the second floor will be medical and behavioral medicine offices, and the ground floor will feature a welcome center, a community room, and a kitchen for patient education and group visits. When built, the new offices will offer nine medical exam rooms, six dental offices, and two behavioral wellness exam rooms. This will accommodate four to five primary care doctors, three to four dentists, and two behavioral health specialists.
The price tag for the project is $23,300,000. Ashrafian said the clinics nailed down the price last December in hopes of avoiding any tariff-driven burst in construction costs. “The impact of tariffs remains unknown as of today,” said Ashrafian. “So far we have not had any problems.”
The existing clinic location will get a makeover, as well, once the new offices are habitable. The old offices — right between Super Cucas and the corner gas station — will be turned into offices for more specialized care with lower-volume visits. The new clinic is scheduled to open sometime by the end of next year.
In separate but related news, Dr. Kurt Ransohoff, president of Sansum Clinic/Sutter Health, reported that Sansum has hired 50 new physicians since the merger took place September 2023. Half of those, he said, are primary care doctors. Nationwide and locally, there’s been a serious shortage in primary care doctors, so the increase is significant. At the time of the merger, Ransohoff said Sutter’s presence would greatly expand Sansum’s ability to recruit and retain new doctors. Sutter is one of the largest hospital chains in the state.
Ransohoff stated that new patients should now be able to be seen within a couple weeks. Long waiting times have long been the bane of new patients’ existence. Ransohoff also noted as well that Sansum’s urgent care clinics are now open weekends and later into the evening, a significant change since the merger.
