D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently announced that Whitman-Walker Health signed on as the first tenant at the St. Elizabeths East Campus in Ward 8, adding that the expansion will include a state-of-the-art health care facility to serve more than 15,000 residents a year.
Bowser’s announcement was made Thursday at the Washington, DC Economic Development Partnership Annual Meeting and ECON Showcase at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
“Today’s announcement brings us closer to reaching yet another milestone in the redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths East Campus and to delivering on a promise that we would use development to provide much-needed community services to Ward 8,” Bowser said. “This new, state-of-the-art health care facility will help us ensure that Washingtonians in every corner of D.C. can access the services they need, right in their communities.”
The 116,000-square-foot center will provide primary, behavioral, dental and substance misuse treatment services, expanding on the services currently provided at Whitman-Walker’s Max Robinson Center at 2301 Martin Luther King Jr Avenue SE.
The development — which will allow Whitman-Walker to go from seeing 5,000 patients and clients at the Max Robinson Center to seeing 15,000 annually — will also include a ground-floor pharmacy, a new home for Whitman-Walker’s Youth Services, and administrative office space for over 100 Whitman-Walker staff.
“This opportunity to expand our integrated care model at St. Elizabeths and improve health outcomes for all D.C. residents is truly a game-changer,” said Whitman-Walker Health CEO Naseema Shafi. “Together with the community, we will build upon our nearly four decades of service at the Max Robinson Center to offer something vital to D.C. residents. We are so grateful to Mayor Bowser and her administration for supporting Whitman-Walker’s mission to empower all persons to live healthy, love openly, and achieve equality and inclusion.”
Whitman-Walker Health would be the first new tenant on the St. Elizabeths East Campus, joining project deliveries such as The R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center, Gateway DC pavilion, the Entertainment and Sports Arena, home of the 2019 WNBA champion Washington Mystics, and the Residences at St. Elizabeths East, which will welcome its first residents later this month.