Brace yourself: Dentistry group plans Arlington expansion
The Children's Dental Center will occupy half of one of the three buildings at the MemDent Medical Office Complex. Construction should start this spring. (Courtesy Wilbanks Architecture & Associates)
Arlington’s only pediatric dental office, Children’s Dental Center, is planning a major expansion, including the construction of a new medical office complex on Airline Road.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, the Arlington Design Review Committee (DRC) unanimously approved a site plan for Phase 1 of the MemDent Medical Office Complex, which will include a two-bay medical office building and the site improvements for a three-building complex.
“Overall, I think it’s a nice-looking building, and it kind of goes in line with the other existing buildings on that side of the road,” DRC member Ronald Colin said.
The dentistry group, which includes Dr. Brent Church, Dr. Larkin Clark, Dr. Cary Daniel, Dr. Melody Greene, Dr. Chris Rowland and Dr. J.B. Selecman, purchased a 3.5-acre parcel from the Town of Arlington a year ago. The site, located roughly a mile from the dental group’s current clinic, sits about 1,000 feet south of the intersection of Airline and Memphis-Arlington roads.
“We wanted a little more square footage in our Arlington office, and we also want to bring a couple of other specialists there with us to service the community, so they don’t have to drive elsewhere to get their dental treatment,” Selecman said.
Children’s Dental Center originally opened in Germantown 20 years ago and now has offices in East Memphis, Midtown and Arlington. Their Arlington office at 5226 Airline Road opened six years ago.
The practice will move into the southern half of the first building constructed, and an oral surgery group plans to take the northern half, which will have a covered pickup area for post-operative patients.
“There are no current oral surgeons that serve the Town of Arlington,” Selecman said. “All of the surgeons we refer to — and they’re all great surgeons — are either in Bartlett or Memphis.”
Plans for that building measure 10,895 square feet. Children’s Dental Center’s current space (which it leases) measures 3,200 square feet, so the move into half of the building space will give them more than 2,000 square feet of additional space.
“Our place is fine right now, but we need about two to three more client rooms because we do serve a lot of special needs children or children with disabilities or kids on the autistic spectrum, and some of those kids need to be in a more quiet room,” Selecman said. “We do a lot of sedation dentistry as well, and those patients just need more room.”
The larger space will also planners to make the clinic even more child-friendly.
“Most kids don’t really want to be at the dentist, but if you can make it a more positive experience for them then they like coming back. Then they’ve got better oral health, which leads to better general health,” Selecman said.
For the two other buildings in the new medical complex, the hope is for a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialty group to come in as well as other dental specialists like orthodontists.
The dental group recognized the growth potential in the area even before last year’s announcement of BlueOval City opening about 15 miles away in Fayette County.
“We thought that five years ago. And now with all the development going, it’s even more urgent I think,” Selecman said.
The dentistry group is working with local developer Bill Powell, who is helping oversee the project.
“I think it’s going to be a beautiful addition to Arlington,” Powell said. “All three buildings are going to be built at the same time. The way the site’s configured, it’s just going to be so much easier to develop all three at once. We just got the first one approved (Tuesday night), and then the other two will pretty much mirror the elevation of the first one.”
The site plan still needs approval from the Arlington Board of Mayor and Aldermen, but the group hopes construction is underway by the spring. Selecman expects the new office could be open by early 2024.
Topics
Town or Arlington Children's Dental Center Design Review CommitteeMichael Waddell
Michael Waddell is a native Memphian with more than 20 years of professional writing and editorial experience, working most recently with The Daily News and High Ground News.
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