Sonoma County tribes unveil plan for large medical center at former Kmart site in Santa Rosa

Sonoma County’s indigenous tribes are planning to develop an overgrown retail lot left barren by the 2017 firestorm into a new hub for health and wellness, a project at the northern gateway to Santa Rosa that will grant greater visibility to their role in the community and affirm their cultural heritage for generations to come.

The Sonoma County Indian Health Project, backed by six local tribes, announced plans last week to construct a 70,000-square-foot medical center at the former Kmart site in Santa Rosa along Highway 101. The multimillion-dollar development represents a major expansion of the nonprofit group’s existing primary care facility in the city, and will mark the transformation of one of the few large-scale commercial properties burned to the ground by the historic Tubbs fire.

“In an Indian way, it’s one of those things that you look at and find ways to heal, not just yourself, but your community,” said Reno Franklin, tribal chairman emeritus of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of Stewarts Point Rancheria, and board vice chair of the health project. “It makes a statement to the thousands of people who drive by on Highway 101 every single day that, ‘Hey, you’re in Indian Country, and we care about our tribal community and our community that’s around us as well. It is very symbolic and very real, and it’s exciting as well.”

Completion of the two-story medical center, which is expected to be at least five years away, also will further solidify northern Santa Rosa as the heart of the county’s health care facilities. The Kaiser Permanente medical campus, Sutter Health’s Santa Rosa Regional Hospital and Providence St. Joseph’s Memorial Hospital are all located within a 3-mile radius of the property.

“I couldn’t think of a better use. While people talk about housing, retail, and talk about other things, there’s no higher use than the health and wellness of our First Nations stewards,” said Supervisor James Gore, whose district includes the 9-acre parcel near the corner of Cleveland and Hopper avenues that used to house Kmart.

“I think the biggest problem with interactions and our continued issues with prejudice and stereotypes is that we sometimes hide from the diversity out there, and the needs,” he added. “So I like that this one is proudly standing up in a place that was destroyed by the fires and is going to take care of people for generations.”

The project is years in the making and grew out of a desire for more space to meet members’ medical, dental and behavioral health needs, said Betty Arterberry, chief executive officer of the health project, who is also vice chair of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. In addition to the Dry Creek and Kashia tribes, the nonprofit serves the Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, Lytton Rancheria of California, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and Manchester Band of Pomo Indians of the Manchester Rancheria in Mendocino County, as well as any American Indians and Alaska Natives who live in the area at no charge.

The current clinic, which opened at a 3-acre site on the corner of Stony Point Road and West Ninth Street in 2001, is 45,000 square feet and “bursting at the seams,” Franklin said. The center has about 170 employees and last year served more than 4,000 patients, according to the nonprofit.

The clinic also offers a pharmacy, as well as nutrition and health education services with a focus on care for senior tribal members. It acts as the location of social gatherings for the tribes as well, to take workshops in culture-based activities that include cooking, beading, basket weaving and drum circles.

The expansion, which will nearly double the size of the regional hub, will offer more ways to cater to the tribes’ older members, but also provide more youth-focused programs, Franklin said. That will allow more crossover and mentorship between the elder tribesmen and women between the younger members, a dynamic he likened to being a game-changer.

“Think of when you are playing basketball on a half-court. We’re still playing basketball, but we will be going full court now. We’ll have the whole court to work on it and all those limitations on a half-court will be gone,” Franklin said. “We’ve never had a stand-alone place … that features a component of elder care and features youth care, and places an opportunity to merge the two.”

The nonprofit declined to disclose a final price for the property. It said it entered into an agreement to buy the land in January, paid for with years of health project savings. Tom Laugero, partner with Keegan & Coppin commercial real estate brokerage, offered no comment, citing an ongoing transaction.

Public documents filed July 29 with the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office do not include a sale price for the transaction, which also appears to include the vacant former Furniture 21 retail store just south of the old 500-space Kmart parking lot. In January, the County Assessor’s Office valued the Kmart parcel at $3.89 million, and the 1-acre vacant retail structure and land at $2.7 million.

The locations offer some of the limited opportunities to redevelop commercially zoned space within the Tubbs fire burn scar. Although the fire destroyed more than 3,000 homes in Santa Rosa, it consumed just 18 commercial sites, including the previous 125,500-square-foot Kmart, according to city officials.

The other two large, still-vacant lots are the 11-acre site on the east side of the highway where the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country hotel stood and the nearby 9.5-acre site of the former 124-room Fountaingrove Inn and historic Round Barn. The Fountaingrove Inn property is now slated for a 224-unit apartment complex. While no building applications are on file with the city for the Hilton, the owner has signaled intent to eventually rebuild the 250-room hotel, according to Raissa de la Rosa, Santa Rosa’s economic development director.

Development plans for the new state-of-the-art medical clinic have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and remain preliminary, according to Arterberry and Franklin. The project’s price tag has yet to be identified, though Franklin said the nonprofit is counting on the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service to help with the cost. The health project is in the meantime looking to wait and take advantage of possible lowered construction costs due to the economic downturn and completion of more home fire rebuilds across the region, freeing up labor and building materials.

“This is definitely a project that is a multimillion-dollar investment into tribal health right there at that location,” Franklin said. “In this case, time is our friend. Very rarely can you say that, but it will be on our side, and again, it all goes back to not rushing the process. It’s really important for us to give the tribes a level of care they expect, and to make sure we meet or exceed that as many times as we can during this process.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the size of the Sonoma County Indian Health Project’s current clinic in Santa Rosa.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.