Boosted by a $400,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation, the Hope Clinic in Ypsilanti is turning toward other foundations to complete a $3 million capital campaign that will allow it to complete a new building and consolidate its services under one roof.

If the clinic, which provides medical and dental care and emergency food services to low income and uninsured people, is able to raise the $1.3 million necessary to secure the Kresge challenge grant by the end of the year, it will complete its Campaign for One Hope fundraising drive.

“We’re hoping and anticipating that it will help us leverage additional funds,” said Hope Clinic Executive Director Cathy Robinson. “It’s a challenging time to have a capital campaign.”

Robinson said that while clinic is looking toward other foundations to meet Kresge’s challenge, it will continue to seek individual and corporate donations, which she said are "more important than ever."

The shell and roof of a new building on Harriet Street are up, but next steps - including a concrete slab and doors and windows - are on hold while more financing is arranged. Robinson said she is working with Bank of Ann Arbor for a bridge loan to be paid back by campaign pledges, which would allow construction to continue.

Meanwhile, Robinson said, the clinic has identified a potential buyer for one of the buildings it will vacate in the consolidation, the medical clinic on Arnet Street. The plan is to sell that building and the dental clinic on South Adams Street. The sites haven’t been listed for sale yet, but Robinson said a buyer has emerged through contacts with board members.

The new building will be 20,000 square feet, more than double then combined 7,000 square feet the clinics operate in now. The second phase of the project involves renovation to the current facility on Harriet Street to allow the nonprofit to serve its weekend meals there, instead of at the Salvation Army about a mile east on Park Street.

The clinic has a budget of about $1.2 million with 13 full-time employees and about the same number of part-timers. It uses volunteer health professionals to provide 6,000 patient visits annually in the medical clinic, and 2,300 dental visits.

Capacity of the clinics will increase from four dental treatment rooms to seven, and from five medical exam rooms to eight, Robinson said. Demand for both types of care has increased dramatically over the past few years - about a 40 percent increase for medical care, and more than 100 percent for dental care.

“More of our neighbors are in need than ever,” Robinson said.

To get the building project done, the clinic is also relying on in-kind contributions such as donated labor from the local plumbers and pipe fitters union, discounted fees from engineers and architects, and donated paint.

“That was always a piece of it, and we are working to increase that portion,” Robinson said.

The grant from Kresge is one of four given out by the foundation to Washtenaw County groups this year. The others were a $25,000 prize to the University of Michigan, part of a total $65,000 awarded to a group of students from U-M and Michigan State University working on a business plan to use algae to treat wastewater and produce biofuels; a $442,500 grant over two years to Legal Services of South Central Michigan; and $980,000 over four years to the Fair Food Network.

-Dan Meisler writes about real estate and other topics for Ann Arbor Business Review. Contact him at (734) 302-1721 or danm@mbusinessreview.com.

Photo by Robert Ramey: Hope Clinic Executive Director Cathy Robinson.