CHI Franciscan broke ground Monday on its new outpatient clinic just off of Kitsap Way in Bremerton.

The 26,000 square-foot facility, which used to be a QFC grocery store, will provide comprehensive primary, specialty, and urgent care services to residents of Bremerton and the surrounding region. In addition, the clinic will house the Northwest Family Medicine Residency Program, which will train the next generation of family physicians to expand access to primary care services that meet the needs of the growing Bremerton community.

“Our great city of Bremerton — the largest in Kitsap County — is experiencing unprecedented growth in a way we haven’t seen before,” Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler said. “As our population grows, so will the need for access to high-quality healthcare.”

“This facility will help those who are low-income, uninsured and disabled who don’t have the resources to travel outside the city to receive care,” Wheeler added. “It will also provide essential services to meet the demands of more population growth on the horizon.”

The clinic will provide 30 exam rooms, which almost doubles the residency program’s current capacity of 18 exam rooms. The three-year residency program will onboard its third residency class July 1, 2020. At full strength, the program will have 24 physician residents and eight graduating primary care physicians. The clinic is expected to see 25,000 to 30,000 visits each subsequent year.

“I am ecstatic to break ground on this new clinic and look forward to its opening in July of 2020, just in time for our third class of family medicine residents,” MD Michael Watson said, Northwest Washington Family Medicine Residency Program founding director. “This clinic will allow us to house all of our faculty physicians, resident physicians, and increase the number of exam rooms available to serve our patients.”

David Schultz, the CHI Franciscan market president for the Peninsula Region, was also on-site for the groundbreaking.

“Today marks the end of a long planning cycle and the beginning of our new and long-term presence in Bremerton,” Schultz said. “This space will house the largest collection of primary care providers on the entire Kitsap Peninsula. I am very proud of the team that has gotten us to this point.”