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Urgent Care Center Coming to Austin Street

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | October 31, 2013 2:40pm
 A new health care facility is coming to Austin Street.
A new health care facility is coming to Austin Street.
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DNAinfo/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — An urgent care facility is expected to open on Austin Street in Forest Hills early next year in a new building, currently under construction, that was previously being considered for an H&M.

People familiar with the project said that the popular clothing store and a chain pharmacy, such as CVS, had been considered for the location, but the status of those plans was not clear.

The medical center run by ProHealth, a physician group practice with facilities throughout New York and Long Island, is scheduled to open early in 2014, said Rob Russo, a spokesman for ProHealth.

The building, which is being built at 71-53 Austin St., where Alexandra boutique had been located, will be two stories tall and the health center will occupy about 75 percent of the space, according to the developer, who said he is now looking for another tenant to fill the remaining space.

The walk-in facility will serve adults and children, according to the sign on the fence surrounding the lot.

“It’s [an] urgent care center so it’s going to function like an ER at a hospital,” Russo said. “Patients will come there if they’ve had burns, cuts, stomach pain or a broken arm.”

The plan raised concerns about the traffic along Austin Street, which already struggles with a high volume of cars, but Russo said that it will be a walk-in center and ambulances won’t be bringing patients there.

“Urgent care centers are like the wave of the future and you are not waiting in the hospitals,” said Leslie Brown, president of the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce.

“Hopefully that location will be OK. It may bring more traffic but it’s pretty far from the subway and the buses,” Brown noted.