Non-profit to build dental office next to clinic

By Robert Willams

Editor

Northern Dental Access Center has been seeking out a location for a new office for the past two years, and after a meeting with the Frazee Economic Development Authority (EDA) on Thursday, Feb. 2, it was announced that the non-profit has chosen Frazee for its third location.

After several years of planning and fundraising, a new community access dental center opened its doors in December 2008, serving people in the Bemidji and Beltrami County area of northwestern Minnesota. The non-profit also owns a facility in Halstad.

The overall need for dentistry and patients on medical assistance and Medicare was the driving factor for Northern Dental Access Center (NDAC) placing a new facility in Becker County.

“The community stakeholders in the Becker County region have been trying to find a method to increase access to dental care. It had become a public health concern and the private sector dentists were even feeling distraught by the number of patients they could not serve.”

Jean Edevold Larson, NDAC executive director

Private sector dentists have difficulty serving patients enrolled in medical assistance or Medicare due to low reimbursement rates and the overall needs of that population, according to Larson.

“That’s the work we do here in Bemidji,” she said.

Over the course of two years, leaders from Northern Dental Access Center viewed more than a dozen potential sites with county stakeholders seeking out either a building that could be renovated, or properties suited for construction. There were specific needs for parking and overall square footage and location. Those needs were going to be best served in one of two spots, the Detroit Lakes industrial park or downtown Frazee.

NDAC invested in phase I environmental studies and soil boring at each site.

“We wanted to understand the unique nature of each property and how it might impact the construction costs,” said Larson.

Those studies took two months and a final report was submitted in late December.

“There were some challenges in the Detroit Lakes site and there were some opportunities in the Frazee site by where the utilities are and how the slope on the piece of property can be used to our advantage and some other issues with the soil and power lines. Our engineers concluded that the site in Frazee was advantageous. It was really about the buildability of both sites in comparison.”

The site is to the east of Essentia Health – St. Mary’s clinic on East Main Avenue.

“Frazee also made sense because we can draw patients and workforce from the Detroit Lakes area easily, as well as Perham and other communities,” said Larson. “The graciousness and enthusiasm by all of the community leaders in Frazee has just been a delight and really made it a nice conversation.”

An early report by the Detroit Lakes Tribune indicated that the main reason for NDAC moving to Frazee was because the land was being donated by the Frazee EDA.

“That was not the decision-maker for us. It’s a $9 million building. The cost of the property was incidental, really.”

Jean Edevold Larson

Another factor was NDAC works closely with Apple Tree Dental in Hawley, which is currently expanding its practice due to community needs. That expansion also factored into NDAC choosing Frazee for a location as it allowed the combined entities to draw from a larger regional customer base.

“It was not a competition between the communities in our mind,” said Larson. “It was the soil and the building needs of each parcel. Both entities were wonderful to work with. Detroit Lakes wanted us as much as Frazee wanted us. It really was a technical and financial decision based on the parcels.”

Funding and fundraising will be the biggest determining factor on a timeline, which currently remains fluid. The Frazee EDA and members of NDAC will be meeting again on Tuesday, Feb. 7, to continue discussions.

“We still have a lot of money to raise,” said Larson. “It’s a chicken and egg adventure because until we know the site it’s very difficult to get construction costs estimated accurately and then we know how much money we need to raise. It’s a long process. The next step is to put some sketches in place with a site plan. We need a lower level to get underneath those dental chairs for all the utilities that are hooked up to those chairs. What kind of retaining wall do we have to have on that slope and other things?”

Frazee’s downtown retail space that currently houses Seip Drug is also a potential site for a temporary working area, while the building next to the clinic is under construction.

“We did discuss that with the EDA folks to see what their plans are for that building,” said Larson.

Building costs will be the main factor. It is not big enough to be used permanently, according to Larson. The non-profit simply needs more time to assess the full scope of the project.

“We’re  just so very early, but it is nice to have a room full of enthusiastic people trying to help us out and if we do take it in small steps it benefits everybody,” said Larson.

Hank Ludtke and other EDA members gave NDAC multiple options on a tour of Frazee, including four acres by Red Willow Heights, and the Mickelson property near Dollar General, but the spot on East Main won out. 

“They really liked that because the clinic is next door and the river is across the street with Mahube-Otwa just down the street,” said Ludtke. 

Mayor Mark Flemmer was along with Ludtke on the tour and after discussions a decision was made to donate the property.

Getting the dental center in town was a big win for the EDA and the region. 

“It is. I was ecstatic when she told me they had picked Frazee. I’d like to thank them and all of our own people that helped bring this to fruition. We aren’t done yet. Now we’re getting into the real exciting aspects of what economic development should be. Now we’re going to have more people interested in putting housing here too.”

Hank Ludtke, Frazee EDA member

Ludtke announced NDAC’s decision at the end of Wednesday’s EDA meeting, also citing the county EDA’s mission to work with smaller towns for the betterment of the whole county and this project fits right into that scope.

“It’s going to be interesting to see what we can draw into town now,” Lutdke said.

The mayor lauded Ludtke’s efforts with the proposal.

“Thanks to the work Hank has done on that, I see a domino effect now that we have new business coming in,” he said. “Developers can come and say we’ve got some stuff going on here in Frazee. Then, hopefully it falls on our downtown businesses that we are going to have 60-70 people coming to town every day.”

There was a distinct level of excitement for the future at the EDA meeting and a renewed vigor to push more development in town.

“The one thing we have to focus on is a tighter timeframe when it comes to housing,” said Heath Peterson. “It’s going to bring more people to town. We need to move fast.”

Construction timelines will be announced in the future. NDAC has a blueprint of what they are looking at building.

“The hope would be to replicate the Bemidji location as much as possible,” said Larson. “The demographics are so similar in size and scope of the need. Our Halstad location was a smaller dental practice that we bought and converted. That was a different approach and it is a different market over there. This, we would expect to be bigger like Bemidji. Right now, we have 14 treatment rooms and five dentists onsite every day so we’re seeing 75-80 patients every day.”

For more information on the non-profit, visit www.northerndentalaccess.org.