ANDERSONVILLE — In the 19 years Visionary Eye Care has been open on Clark Street, it's seen the block bloom from scattered retail to a thriving business district.
Clark Street's growth is a reflection of the neighborhood, whose population now reflects more families and more children. To keep up with those changes, Visionary Eye Care will be expanding its space to tend to more patients and add more options for kids, said Jamar Holloway, Director of Operations.
"It's a good time and opportunity to take advantage of," Holloway said. "We've been here for a while and the community has changed. There's a lot of kids in the community and we thought we should do something to engage them, so [families] don't have to travel outside the community [to receive treatment] for their kids."
Optometrist at the shop, at 5222 N. Clark St., "diagnose and treat ocular conditions and diseases with a wide referral network for surgical and tertiary care." The shop is kid-friendly, pet-friendly, LGBT-friendly, according to their website.
The expansion has been in the works for a few years and will include the entire store doubling in size, a dedicated medical facility, expanding the waiting room, an expanded showroom with more patient fitting stations and an expanded lens laboratory, according to their website.
The facility, which currently has two exam rooms, will now have five rooms all adaptable for exams, "which is huge for us," Holloway said. The big changes will be hard to notice from Clark Street, since they're "basically, blowing out the back offices," but they'll also be redoing their front window display, he said.
The current space may be shut down for about a week for construction, which they hope to be completed by the end of October or earlier November, he said.
The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Monday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Wednesday. They have an additional office at 181 W. Madison St. in the Loop.
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