An architectural rendering, via a packet given to Pivotal board members, of the proposed addi-tion to the east side of Pivotal’s Centreville building, which board members gave the go-ahead to move forward with at their meeting Tuesday.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — Board members of Pivotal, formerly Community Mental Health in St. Joseph County, reaffirmed their willingness to go ahead with a future construction project at its Centre-ville location during their meeting Tuesday.
In a unanimous vote, the board agreed to moving forward with getting quotes for a building ad-dition on the east side of its Centreville location. The move came after CEO Cameron Bullock presented a few additional options for either expanding or potentially moving.
During discussion, Bullock presented initial architectural renderings from Kalamazoo-based Diekema Hamann Architecture & Engineering of what the two-story addition would look like, as well as the floor plans for what would go in there. According to the floor plans, the first floor, which would house Pivotal’s Clubhouse program, would have a day room, dining room, kitchen, a reception area and the director’s office, while the second floor is proposed to have a number of offices, the CEO’s office, and a break area. An elevator and stairwell would connect the two floors.
Finer details, Bullock said, would be determined at a meeting he is expected to have with the architects in mid-February.
An estimated cost has not been determined yet, as the project is yet to go out for bid, but Bull-ock mentioned a “worst-case scenario” cost of $6 million. However, he said to board members he expects the cost to be lower than that.
“I fully anticipate that when you put it out to bid, it will be very competitive and people are go-ing to want the business,” Bullock said. “What I’m trying to do is say, here’s the maximum threshold so I can make sure the banks are taken care of, that the board’s okay with the dollar amount, and then make the construction companies know that this is not what we’re intending to pay, but really this is for the board.”
During discussion of the building addition, Bullock outlined that he had been looking for other property or buildings available for Pivotal to see if they could be viable options for possibly mov-ing its operations in Centreville to better meet clients’ needs.
One of those options he mentioned was the old Nazarene Church building on Fawn River Road, which while it was 77,000 square feet, more than triple the size of what Pivotal’s building has now, Bullock admitted it may not be conducive to most of his staff for commuting, nor would it be centrally located for clients in Three Rivers and Sturgis. He noted there was no suitable space like that available in Three Rivers for locating both the admin and Clubhouse portions of the op-eration.
The second option Bullock mentioned was land available in the Centreville area, in which they could purchase and potentially build a new building. While he said it could eliminate the costs of building a second stairwell in the addition, he said one potential pitfall of that idea is that there has been a “halt” put in place for expansion sites to Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs), which Pivotal is.
“When I heard that, I thought, oh god, we’re trying to build this addition, what does that mean,” Bullock said. “Because it’s on our current site they could care less, but if we were to try to move to a different building, they could deny that and not be allowed.”
The options for possible new locations was also presented as part of a “future plans” sheet Bull-ock gave to board members, which was a mostly “hypothetical” document, by Bullock’s admis-sion. The two options were presented under the “immediate” category for possible future plans, which Bullock said weren’t as hypothetical as other plans, and would’ve cost roughly $3 million for the old Nazarene Church building idea and about $3 million to $5 million for building a new building on the Centreville land.
Bullock said, ultimately, he did not want to go out for a bid for the building addition if the board decided to not go forward with the plan.
“It’s a lot; I’m not underselling or minimizing the decision the board has, but I think that we are in a position that we’ve never been able to be in before that allows us to be able to continue to expand and be able to serve the community more than we’ve ever been able to,” Bullock said. “It’s just up to the board on if they want to continue to move forward.”
Bullock, in response to a question from board member Cathi Abbs, noted the Centreville build-ing Pivotal is in now is scheduled to be fully paid off in three to four years, after refinancing its loan on the building. He also said the board has already committed approximately $125,000 to $150,000 of its initial up-to $250,000 amount for the project thus far.
When it comes to funding the project, Bullock said he has gone to local banks in the area inquir-ing what loan payment would be for “a certain dollar amount,” which have offered a 5.75 per-cent to 6 percent loan with a 25-year payback. However, he said those were “conservative” offers, and could go lower once bids are submitted.
Board chair Luis Rosado said that the board, in his opinion, shouldn’t change course with what it wants to go with.
“We’ve already invested quite a bit of money on getting this train moving down the track, and I for one am not willing to entertain changing course,” Rosado said. “That’d be like throwing money away.”
A motion was ultimately made to go ahead with the project as it was.
In other business…
- The board heard a presentation from Alan Bolter, the associate director of the CMH Associ-ation of Michigan, on legislative updates from the state level.
- Bullock, in his report to the board, briefly mentioned the situation that surrounded Medicaid Tuesday, which was initially caught up in an executive order made by President Donald Trump that paused federal loans and grants to all departments with Medicaid portals in many states going down during the day. The pause was blocked by a federal judge late Tues-day, and legal challenges have already been filed, claiming the order is illegal. Bullock, along with Bolter, said they received additional guidance that afternoon that Medicaid would not be a part of that pause, and that they have some grants come from the state and not the federal level.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
