Wake County opens new 154,000-square-foot public health center; Ross cites $2 million in federal support

Wake County leaders on Monday marked the opening of a new Wake County Public Health Center, a four-story, 154,000-square-foot facility the county says will centralize public-health services and expand capacity for clinical care.

Don Myle, who introduced himself as chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said the new center replaces the Sunnybrook clinic and was designed to make visits easier for families, with space for about 100 patients at a time, 88 exam rooms and 20 dental treatment rooms. "This new public health center is a whopping 154,000 square feet," Myle said, urging visitors to tour the facility.

Rebecca Kauffman, Wake County's public health director, said the center will house a broad range of services, including pediatric care, family planning and prenatal clinics, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) services, dental care, a TB clinic with negative-pressure rooms, refugee health services, immunizations and sexually transmitted disease clinics. "This new center is more than a building, it's a promise," Kauffman said, adding that the county plans a centralized check-in and more than 100 clinic rooms to streamline services.

Kauffman said Wake County Public Health served more than 25,000 patients last year across Sunnybrook and five regional centers, and that the new facility will help meet rising demand and reduce space constraints for the department's roughly 700 staff members. "Inside these walls, we'll provide a full range of services that touch every stage of life," she said.

County Manager David Ellis framed the center as part of the county's response to rapid population growth, noting an estimated 1.2 million residents in Wake County and steady in-migration. He credited partnerships among Wake County, WakeTech and WakeMed—and land swaps among them—for making the medical campus possible.

Congresswoman Deborah Ross said she helped secure federal support for the project in 2022 and told the audience that President Biden signed funding into law that included $2,000,000 to help bring the project to life. "I was honored to play a small role in the construction of this new health care center," Ross said, and she described the facility as a step toward improving access to preventive care for vulnerable and underserved residents.

Commissioner Tara Waters (District 5) thanked project contractors and designers, including Skanska, LS3P and O'Brien Atkins, and said nearly 2,000 people worked on the facility. She invited the crowd to cut the ribbon and noted that residents will be able to use the center starting Monday, Feb. 23.

No formal votes or board actions were recorded at the opening ceremony; officials focused on the facility's features, partners, funding and services. The county encourages residents to tour the center and use its services when it opens on Feb. 23.