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It became official late last week – Philadelphia’s premiere LGBT-oriented health organization, Mazzoni Center, is moving to South Philly. Its overseers make it just under the wire: their new home, which will begin with construction this summer, will be at 1328-1338 Bainbridge St. One block south of South Street and two blocks from the Lombard-South Broad Street Line, with the move, they are stretching the boundaries of what’s considered the gayborhood and confirming their stature as an important institution in the city as well as nationwide.
In their 35th year, they operate out of three Center City addresses and are bursting at the seams. Their two offices, 21 S. 12th St. and 809 Locust St., total about 31,000 square feet – when they combine into one on Bainbridge, they’ll occupy almost 45,000 square feet. They hope to finish by the summer of 2017 and will be able to personalize and expand on two adjacent unoccupied spaces, customizing office and medical spaces to their precise needs. Their third location, a rapid-testing stronghold at 1201 Locust St., will not be affected.
Mazzoni contacted Alterra Group, LLC in ’13 to begin looking for a new space. Their tenant representation will be with Savills Studley, commercial real estate advisors, who will also provide project management services throughout the design and construction process.
“What I’m really excited about is seeing how much the organization has grown over the last few years since I’ve been on the board,” Dr. Jimmy Ruiz, an OB-GYN physician who grew up on Staten Island, lives in Glenside and has a private practice out of Abington, said. “Mazzoni helps provide services for both health care and social services with a focus on the LGBTQ community.”
The non-profit, according to a press release, will especially bolster “Mazzoni Center’s growing medical practice and behavioral health program, and will provide the agency with comfortable, updated spaces for its LGBT legal services, case management, food bank and housing programs for people with HIV, as well as HIV prevention, education and other key departments.”
They’ll go from 13 to 26 patient exam rooms and expand their staff of therapists, nearly doubling the number of counseling rooms. “Mazzoni Center also plans to launch an Intensive Outpatient Program, which will be the first in the Philadelphia region dedicated to helping LGBT individuals with substance abuse issues,” according to the report.
The Center’s CEO, Nurit Shein, will have a much shorter commute in three summers’ time.
“I love the neighborhood – I look forward to bringing everybody else with me,” the Israeli native, retired colonel and resident of 18th and Bainbridge streets, said.
She came to the organization in 1994 as its executive director, and things were very different then.
“We were a much different organization then, we were much smaller. It was actually pretty difficult because it was still at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and we were facing a lot of debt and distress from the community,” she confessed.
But things are much, much better now.
“We have added at least 30 new patients every month and have added a new clinician on an annual basis. Currently, we have no more room to grow in any of our locations,” she said.
There is something meaningful and symbolic in their move and maturation.
“The physical statement of having a building that is an LGBT health organization is an important thing to us and to Philadelphia. And we really have the support of City Council members and of the mayor and of the LGBT director [Helen “Nellie” L. Fitzpatrick] – it’s a good thing,” Shein said. “And we’re looking forward to coming into your neighborhood. We’re expanding the gayborhood all the way down, and it’s been expanding.”
The use of a creative Town Hall space will be, in part, shaped by folks in the neighborhood with ideas for how to use the space.
“We’ve been very good neighbors, and we bring good energy to the neighborhood,” Shein added.
She also praised Philadelphia’s status as one of the friendliest, if not the friendliest, cities to LGBT people in America. She could be referring to the near-perfect 100 score from the Human Rights Campaign’s 2014 Municipal Equality Index report, which measures “the law, policies and services of municipalities and rates them on the basis of their inclusivity of LGBT people who live and work there.”
“Clearly, Philadelphia is much more of an LGBT hub than it was 20 years ago – I am hoping that we have contributed something to that [score],” Shein said.
Mazzoni aims at “health care to the whole person and not just to the medical concern at hand,” Ruiz, who’s seen strides in medical education since he graduated from medical school in 1998, said. “When you have providers that have already had the experience in addressing those needs, any patient would want to go to a provider who has experience with their situation.”
Before the move, Mazzoni staff took a look at similar institutions and other cities, and Ruiz says it’s about time Philly got itself a brick-and-mortar home for LGBT health.
“It’s almost as if Mazzoni is taking its place among its peers in terms of having its own home,” the physician said.
When pressed on if there were an aspect or department of her non-profit that she held dearest to her, Shein wouldn’t dare say.
“They’re all my babies. Well, now they’re my teenagers. I just love every single department: with prevention, what we’re doing in the schools with young people and training self-esteem and negotiating skills, this is invaluable for young people; [we help] trans folks with legal name changes; helping homeless youth with medical care; helping people sort out internalized homophobia through counseling,” Shein concluded. “That is why we’re talking about holistic health – it’s not just legal or medical or housing – we have to look at the as a whole and help them wherever they need help.”
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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