After 70 years of neighborhood care, HealthPartners plans to replace its longstanding Como Clinic with a considerably larger new nearby location offering expanded services, including a new TRIA Orthopedics clinic, endocrinology and OB-GYN care.
The new building, to be situated in the 2500 block of Como Avenue in St. Anthony Park, will be just to the north and across the street from the existing site, which opened in 1957 when HealthPartners was known as Group Health. Como is considered the Bloomington-based nonprofit health care provider’s first clinic. Groundbreaking is expected this summer, with a scheduled opening in the fall of 2027.
The vacant land was purchased from Luther Seminary before the pandemic, but plans for the new site were put on hold when COVID became the priority.
“The current clinic is going to stay open until the new one opens,” said Scott Beedy, a HealthPartners spokesperson.
Plans call for expanded services in the areas of primary care, urgent care, pediatrics, dentistry and cardiology, on top of new services such as a TRIA Orthopedics Clinic, endocrinology and OB-GYN care. CT and MRI capabilities also will be added, making the location one of the most advanced urgent care sites in the east metro, according to a statement from HealthPartners, a nonprofit provider.
“Our first clinic opened on Como Avenue nearly 70 years ago with a simple but powerful idea: care should be local, accessible and affordable for the people in our community,” said Andrea Walsh, president and chief executive officer of HealthPartners, in the statement. “This new Como Clinic honors that legacy while investing in the future of St. Paul. It brings more services, more convenience and more coordinated care to patients who rely on us every day. We’re proud to be able to continue to reinvest in a place that is so important.”
HealthPartners plans to release more information to community members about the clinic and its design process this spring as construction permitting is worked out with the city, Beedy said. Exact square footage and cost estimates have yet to be determined, but the new site will be well over 50% larger than the existing one, he said.
HealthPartners, which held its annual meeting on Thursday, serves more than 1.4 million patients in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and provides insurance plans for 1.4 million medical and dental plan members nationwide.