Excuse me, Mr. Chair, on 1201, here and hold, are we bringing that back for resumption on the amended refusal, or are we just opposing the record closed except for the amended refusal?
I think it's closed except for that and comments from the attorney, if he wants, right?
Well, I don't think he'll have comments on the amended refusal, but okay.
It's closed.
Okay, all right, thank you for the clarification.
All right. So we're going to go with number nine, MI 2024-006-839-6101 North Broad Street. Meredith Trego is the attorney. There's a letter of non-opposition from a concerned community association.
counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
uh yes my name is meredith trego with ballard spar my name is spelled m-e-r-e-d-i-t-h
trego is t-r-e-g-o do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do could you identify your client the relationship to the property sure i am here
representing archwell health llc who's the lessee of the property at 6101 north broad street the
property is owned by rtec1 llc and ng 19 lp our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon
counselor do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
we do have emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this
we do have emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this
kids, Bob.
case five days in advance of this hearing yes sir we have thank you counsel please proceed
thank you I will go ahead and share my screen
um thank you chairman and members of the board we're here today for a request for a special
exception for the use of a property as a group medical health practitioner office which will be
located in an existing building in a cmx 2.5 commercial mixed-use zoning district i'm joined
today by my client mr seth dickey who's the associate vp of market development for archwell
health um as well as okay um as well as potentially uh dr moten um who is a senior market medical
director for archwell health she'll be um joining us if she can our exhibits filed with the board
today include everything that's required um included here on this exhibit list um including
our tax clearance certificate for exhibit uh in exhibit two our proof of mailing for our neighbor
notices in exhibit eight our proof of posting in exhibit nine we are also aware that the rco the
acca who's the coordinating rco for this project submitted a letter of non-opposition last night
turning to exhibit three for our referral this is as i said a application for a group
medical practitioner use, which is in the office use category. We note that no zoning plans are
required. This is simply a use application, and this is a special exception in this zoning district.
We do want to note, we met with the community on January 9th, and we'll note up front that their
letter of non-opposition did include three provisos, so we'll just address those. Those
provisos were that the premises not be used as a drug treatment or a drug rehabilitation facility,
that trash will be stored separately in the dumpsters located behind the building in a locked
bin with commercial pickup, and that medical waste will be stored inside the building with
private collection. We have no issues with these provisos. This is our course of business
as a matter of fact anyway, and we're happy to agree to these provisos on any granting of the
special exception. I'm going to go now to exhibit 10, which is our zoning map. As I noted, this is
a CMX 2.5 district. We point out that the property is located on the North Broad Street commercial
corridor with other commercial properties. And looking at some excerpts from the zoning code
in this district, CMX 2.5, this is a special exception. We know that a sole medical health
practitioner is by right, but the group practitioner category puts us into a special
exception. As we will show today, we will meet all the requirements for a special exception
because this will not create any detrimental impact on the health, safety, and welfare to
the community that might exceed or that would exceed what might normally be expected from a
group medical office use. We just want to briefly talk a little bit about Archwell Health.
R2A Health provides primary care services to adults age 60 and over.
They have an average patient age of 72.
R2A Health services include primary care provider visits, lab work, preventative health screenings,
social work visits, nutrition education, care management, cardiology, telehealth visits.
There is a growing need for doctors and other medical professionals in the country, including
in Philadelphia, specifically for the senior population. Approximately 10,000 to 11,000
Americans will age into Medicare each day. R2L was founded in 2020, and it currently has 52
locations throughout the country. It's planning to nearly double that by the end of 2025.
At full capacity at most locations, including this location at 6101 North Broad, we anticipate
roughly 35 full-time staff members. That includes physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners,
medical assistants, as well as other support staff. Archwell also looks to the community first
for hiring and does like to try and fill as many positions of its care team as it can from within
the neighborhood. Facilities, including this one at North Broad, they are purposely located close
to transit and are designed with a focus on accessibility for seniors. The office will be
The office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
open from 8 a.m to 5 p.m monday through friday and
And in addition to primary care services, Archwell does provide some ancillary services, such as nutrition education.
Their facilities are also designed to include a modest activities room that can host group activities that promote health and wellness.
Things such as fitness classes like Zumba or chair yoga, as well as other types of health fairs and educational components like that.
It's anticipated that this particular location will schedule roughly 8 to 10 patients per hour,
with an average appointment visit lasting between 40 and 50 minutes per patient.
R2L Health can provide some triage and urgent care services to existing patients,
but that's not their typical model.
It's primarily appointment-based primary care.
R2L Health, we note, does not provide any kind of drug rehabilitation or treatment
at this location or any of its locations.
I'm going to turn to our exhibit 13,
which shows, there we go, an aerial map of the site
with the building and the surrounding parking lot.
This location is located in the Fern Rock neighborhood
of Philadelphia at the intersection of North Broad Street
and Spencer Avenue.
um the existing one-story building is a former ready uh pharmacy and is uh contains roughly 14,000
square feet so we have some images of the site this is a view from north broad street
view from north broad and spencer avenue the view of the south and eastern um facades of the building
from spencer avenue this is the west elevation the north elevation the east elevation which
is essentially the rear of the property and the south elevation we also have included in exhibit
14 some site photos of the interior as i mentioned this is a former rite aid it has been vacant for
a little over a year and then moving to our site plan most of the work that will be done will be
done to the interior of the building we note that while this is an application for the use only we
you know just for informational purposes sort of want to share the site plan and some of the
improvements that will be done so this location has approximately 63 parking spaces those will
remain the same there'll be a little bit of restriping of the ada spaces just to better align
those spaces we're just shifting them essentially from where they are so that the curb onto the
sidewalk sort of meets the ada large space between the spaces a little bit better otherwise the
parking lot will remain the same. The dumpster location is in the rear of the property. That
will be contracted with private commercial pickup. It will be locked between pickups
and for use solely by Archwell. The interior of the building will be fit out with offices
as well as patient rooms, its activity room and a reception area. And on the outside of
the building, most of the work that will be done will really be limited to new signage
on the building as well as new windows and doors so those will be retrofitted just to kind of spruce
up the building give it a fresher look and here is our anticipated again this is not part of this
application but just for your information the the typical signage for archwell and then lastly
we've included some sample interior photos of what offices typically look like
And I think that's it. I think I'll note that the grant of the special exception for the group medical health practitioner use will not create a detrimental impact on the health, safety, and welfare of the neighborhood, exceeding that which we might normally expect from this proposed use.
In fact, the grant of the special exception, we believe, will help improve the health and well-being for the neighbors by bringing accessible health care for seniors to the community.
And I would like to call my client up to adopt my testimony.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Seth Dickey, S-E-T-H-D-I-C-K-E-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Dickey, can you just please tell us about your role with Archwell Health?
Yes, I'm the Associate Vice President with Market Development, so I oversee the end-to-end process from design and construction and the end to go over to our operational leaders.
Thank you.
You have just heard what I said.
Can you affirm that what I've said is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
questions from the board yeah does your use include pickup and drop-off service
Questions from the board.
Yeah, does your use include
I didn't I'm pretty sure if I heard that for residents I mean for your clients
patients sure I'll let mr. Dickey take that question sure most I should say
most if not all Medicare plans do include some type of transportation for
members so we do ride-share partnerships for sure so you'll have vans parked out
in the parking lot when you're not using yeah but it would be more you know like a minivan type of
situation and do you know how many you anticipate having so i'm not sure does archwell health have
its own van or i believe you just i believe they contract with other um private providers of that
service um like health there's a septa has its own service care transit no i know some some of
these services have their own fleet of vans and sometimes they take up all the parking
Apologies for the confusion, but yeah, we don't have our own bus.
Thank you for the question.
And what's the breakdown in terms of services between dental providers and regular medical
practitioners that you're going to have on site?
Did you say dental?
Oh, I don't believe.
Yeah, so it's just medical service.
It's just primary care, medical.
So no, we wouldn't refer that out.
And then what are the hours of operation?
From Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5.
Any other questions?
Questions from our attorney.
I'm sorry. Do you have, I guess, like some kind of patient rooms where they can gather or they can have meetings or they can have, do you have like different services on site for these patients, which you said the average age is like 72?
sort of like activity room or something sure yeah so we have a very well done uh reception
area with a cafe and then um like meredith said kind of a modest activity room where we would do
cooking classes nutrition classes chair yoga okay that type of stuff yes all right thank you
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time questions from the audience
questions. Sorry, we have a person with the iPhone. Charlene will be promoted.
Hi. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Can you hear me? I can. Could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, my name is Dr. Charlene Moten, M-O-T-E-N, Charlene, S-H-I-R-L-E-N-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Hi, Dr. Moten, thank you for joining us.
We actually thought that you were in mid-flight.
We weren't sure that you were available.
So thank you for logging on.
If you would like, can Dr. Moten adopt my testimony as well?
most certainly. Dr. Moten, have you heard what I said today and can you affirm that what I've
said is true and accurate and adopted as your own testimony? I can. Great. Thank you. Is there
anything else you'd like to add? No, I agree with everything that you've said so far. I do want to
share that, yes, we do contract with Ride Health utilizing SEPTA and ensuring that for those
patients with mobility issues, they do have transportation to the site.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Planning commission. The next will be
Tracy Williams.
We had somebody in the audience?
Yes, Tracy Williams. Hi, could you please state your name as spelled
for the stenographer?
hello hi could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
okay tracy williams t-r-a-c-e-y williams w-i-l-l-i-a-m-s right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth okay could you put your video on please
I'm trying to turn in.
It's not coming on.
You all have it.
We see.
Thank you.
Are you a neighbor?
Please proceed.
I live in the 6,000 block of North 13th Street.
We were not aware of this facility.
Archwell helped coming in.
We just were made aware on Thursday.
We oppose it.
We oppose it. The RCO, I don't know who they met with. No one has met with us. I've spoke with residents on 12th Street. I've spoke with residents on Park Avenue. I've spoke with residents on Camac Street. We were not aware of Archwell Health. It's not necessary because Oak Street Health is less than 500 feet away.
The RCO.
I don't know who they met with.
No one has met with us.
that does the same exact thing and does have vans they're connected to the eye institute
and they do the same exact thing for seniors we have a lot of medical facilities we would like
another uh pharmacy in the area thank you counsel you have any questions um sure we would just like
to note that the um uh coordinating rco was assigned by the council person um which is a
the ACCA which is a concerned community association we mailed our notice letters on
November 25th a second letter on January 21st and January 21st in accordance with the address
list provided by the city we held our RCO meeting on January 29th 2025 and posted the property the
same day okay could you tell me who attended your meeting now can't continue yes we we met it was