St. Luke’s Breaks Ground On New Facility In Ashland

St. Luke’s broke ground on a new facility for its Chequamegon Clinic in Ashland this week. The clinic will be built on the city’s lakefront just off of U.S. Highway 2. Mike Boeselager, vice president of support services with St. Luke’s, said the facility will continue to offer primary care and specialty services to patients in the region.

“We have currently eight providers, and (we’re) planning to increase up to 12,” he said. “Then, we have 17 specialists that visit the area – the clinic – like orthopedics and a number of our other specialties.”

Boeselager said they hope to achieve several objectives with the new clinic.

“One is to expand the size of the facility, the second is to increase access to services and three is the location,” he said. “We want to provide a healing environment for our patients, and we think that site is really going to be perfect for that.”

Ashland Assistant Planner Rose Spieler-Sandberg said St. Luke’s worked with the city on a number of requests for developing the site.

“One of the big things was access to the lakefront trail,” she said. “That was really important to our plan commissioners and just to the city of Ashland as a whole that we make sure that things going forward that are located on the waterfront side of the highway give access as much as possible and views to the lake.”

Spieler-Sandberg said St. Luke’s also worked with the city to include sustainability in their design, local products and labor. Boeselager said they expect construction to be finished by next year with plans to move into the facility in March.