VA signs leases on three sites for temporary clinics

Monday, Oct. 14, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has signed leases for three sites in Las Vegas to relocate VA services until a new clinic can be established.

In making the announcement Friday the VA reiterated that its goal is to find a replacement for the structurally damaged Addeliar D. Guy III Ambulatory Care Clinic within three years.

"My goal is to build a replacement, state-of-the-art facility with all deliberate speed," Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said. "It should be up and running in 36 months."

The VA announced in September that it would close the Guy Center, a $16 million five-year-old building it has leased since it was built, and move surgical services to the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital near Nellis Air Force Base and other services to several locations around town.

The VA said transportation will be provided for patients who have to travel to several of the leased sites for services.

The VA said on Thursday it approved three leases for nearly 76,000 square feet of office space and expects to approve additional leases this week. It is expected the VA will lease 169,000 square feet of space over the next three years at a cost of $4.6 million a year.

The VA did not divulge the location of the three leased sites in a news release issued Friday. Attempts to reach the VA in Washington and local VA officials this morning for those locations were not successful.

No date has been set for vacating the Guy Center on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Vegas Drive. However, officials there have estimated they would be out of the building by January.

The facility provides primary care, dental, prosthetic and mental health services to 33,000 veterans.

In April the VA had announced the center would close for one year to allow time for the building's owner, Moreland Corp., of Bakersfield, Calif., to correct exterior defects identified in a structural survey.

The VA, however, said the owner did not comply in a timely manner and the agency opted to void the 15-year, $2 million-per-year lease, officials said.