, 
, 
Remodel work continues this summer on the former Lewis Drug building on East Main Street in Luverne.
Southwestern Mental Health Center purchased the building in September 2013 for the purpose of expanding its operations from the current location on Luverne Street south of the courthouse.
According to SMHC management, the Lewis building will need extensive remodeling to retrofit the open retail floor plan to individual offices, but it has the right amount of space.
“The size of this building is what we were looking for, plus it has off-street parking and it’s centrally located downtown close to other services,” said Scott Johnson, SMHC executive director.
He said remodel work didn’t begin immediately because of budget changes with the USDA, which is the funding source for SMHC.
“We had to scale the project back a bit and had to bid a couple of times,” Johnson said. “For one thing, we won’t have additional parking on the east side that we originally planned for.”
Design Craft of Luverne was awarded the bid earlier this year for $900,000, and its local workers and subcontractors have been working on the remodel job this summer.
Johnson said the building at 9,700 square feet will be 30 percent larger than its current 6,600 square feet of space.
“It’s going to create some additional positions and more jobs in the community,” he said, adding that some have already started and are sharing spaces in the Luverne Street location.
The remodel work will wrap up by late September, and the SMHC staff — about 20 full- and part-time people — will move into the new space in early October.
“It’s going to be a very nice space and very nice project,” Johnson said. “We hope to service the community for decades to come.”
Southwestern Mental Health is a private, non-profit organization that provides mental health services to community members regardless of insurance or ability to pay.
It is often mistaken as a government entity because Rock County contracts with SMHC to provide services for clients who receive other public benefits.
Some of those clients include children who are at risk for court-ordered out-of-home placement.
The Luverne office is part of a five-county Southwestern Mental Health system that also has offices in each of the other four counties. Luverne serves as the administrative hub for the five-county organization that is part of the Avera network.
SWMH purchased the Lewis property on Sept. 4, 2013, following a public auction.
According to Keith Elbers of Elbers Auction Service, Judi Sieperda sold the building to SMHC for $165,000 in an agreement negotiated after the auction ended in a no-sale.
The building was constructed in 1997 and it housed Lewis Family Drug until the business moved to its new location on South Highway 75 in January 2009.