After more than a year of waiting for construction to be completed, the Del Puerto Health Center will open Monday, March 5, at its new quarters at 1700 Keystone Pacific Parkway.

The 11,000-square-foot building includes 21 exam rooms, a conference room, a break room with lockers for staff, a digital x-ray room, doctors’ offices and an office for Dr. David Hilburn, who joined Del Puerto Health Care District as the health center’s medical director in February.

“We’re just extremely excited to be moving into the new health center,” said Chad Vargas, CEO of the district. “We are so pleased to have Dr. Hilburn starting with us on Monday.”

Hilburn, who worked with Gould Medical Group in Patterson for more than 20 years, will see adult patients, while longtime health center mainstay Dr. Eugene Lamazor will continue his work in pediatrics.

Harold Hill, vice president of the district board, praised the new space.

“We’re certainly excited about the move,” Hill said. “We think it’s a very nice facility that the community will be proud of.”

Health center officials traveled a long and often contentious road to achieve the center’s opening. Patterson City Council 2009 initially opposed the health center’s move to Keystone Pacific Business Park in west Patterson when then-landlord John Ramos took issue with the relocation plans, arguing that zoning laws prohibited the health center from operating there.

Keystone officials considered putting an initiative on the ballot to allow the move, but the City Council approved in February 2010 a zoning amendment to permit it. The district bought the building in fall 2010, and remodeling work began in winter 2011. The purchase was financed with a $2.1 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Division.

Health center staff will begin packing up and moving from the offices at Highway 33 and Ward Avenue today, March 1. That office will be closed Friday afternoon, March 2, and all day Saturday, March 3.

The health center will open for business at its new address at 8:30 a.m. Monday, resuming its hours of 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The center is also open from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturdays.

The health center will host a community celebration at the new building in the near future, Vargas said, though the time and date have yet to be announced.

• Contact Maddy Houk at 892-6187 or maddy@pattersonirrigator.com.