Comtrea plans to consolidate its two operations in High Ridge into one location.
The agency will build a new facility behind its current office on 1817 Gravois Road in High Ridge and close the office it rents at 324 Emerson Road in High Ridge, Comtrea chief executive officer Sue Curfman said.
She said the staff and operations from the office on Emerson Road will move into the new building, and the agency will continue using the existing office on Gravois Road.
“The plan is to build an integrated medical location. We will have integrated primary care, psychiatry and behavioral health,” she said. “Behavioral health would be both counseling and substance use treatment.
“The real key is to have the treatment team in one location so we can really provide what we call wrap-around, integrated care for the individual.”
Curfman said the new building will cost an estimated $1.8 million to $2 million, and the agency will use the $663,000 in American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funding it will receive to help cover the cost of the new building.
She said the agency will seek financing to fund the rest of the project.
Curfman said the agency should be allowed to use those ARPA funds for the project, but Comtrea must get approval from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
She said Comtrea also still needs to get bids from architectural firms to design the building, and she has no idea when construction will start.
Curfman said Comtrea currently pays $7,547.27 a month to rent the Emerson Road location.
She said right now the Emerson Road location provides patients with primary care, and the Gravois Road location offers psychiatry, substance use treatment and mental health counseling.
“It makes it a little bit difficult to not have the team together,” she said.
Curfman said while the offices are close to each other, it is a challenge to have two locations and staff members traveling back and forth between them.
She said Comtrea purchased the 3.5-acre lot at Gravois Road in 2008 for approximately $1.1 million. The purchase included the land and the existing building.
“There is sufficient land that we could have the new building and the additional parking,” she said.