‘Like a kid before Christmas’: New pediatric health care center will help resurrect Wilmington’s Riverside neighborhood

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A long-deteriorated area of Northeast Wilmington undergoing a dramatic revitalization will soon have a pediatric health care center.

The medical complex will be housed in the new $54 million Kingwood Community Center under construction in the city’s Riverside neighborhood.

The once-thriving area’s rebirth was chronicled in an October WHYY News documentary, “Resurrecting Riverside.’’

Other major components of the transformation, also known as REACH Riverside, include tearing down 80-year-old public housing apartments and building the 800-home Imani Village, a new recreational/educational center for teenagers and the state’s first STEM Hub for students and families. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

And when Kingswood, whose preschool and senior center has served as Riverside’s heartbeat and safe haven for decades, opens its new facility next year, kids can get primary medical care there.

The health care hub will be Riverside’s “first-stop medical home,” said Mark Marcantano, regional president of Nemours Children’s Health, which will lease 16,000 square feet from Kingwood.

That means “someone who knows you holistically, knows your family, knows all the physiological, psychological, environmental factors, for example, that affect your health and is your starting place for whole child health, the continuum of care,” Marcantano told WHYY News.

“And then, as you have specialty needs, you may have a heart issue, or a pulmonary issue, or whatever issue, we can then track you to specialists and subspecialists who have advanced expertise,” he said.

While the health center is still being designed and staffing levels haven’t been determined, Marcanto said 200 students in Kingswood’s expanded preschool and other Riverside-area children will be able to get annual physicals, vaccinations and evaluation and treatment of illnesses.

“And when you need more, they have the whole [Nemours] system behind them and around them,’’ Marcantano said. “But they’re your one-stop shop until you need more.”

Nemours isn’t just setting up shop in Riverside, though. The health care system is also loaning Kingswood at least $10 million to accelerate the community center’s construction. The bulk of financing for the project has come from financial institutions.

“This money will provide further financial undergirding for a whole range of services and supports” that Kingswood offers, Marcantano said. “We’re putting our money where our vision is.”

Nemours also operates the Nemours Children’s Hospital near Wilmington and has a clinic a mile from Kingswood, where it treats many neighborhood children.

Logan Herring, who runs both Kingswood and the WRK Group overseeing Riverside’s revival, said that with hundreds of new children moving into Imani Village over the next several years, the need for pediatric medical care in the neighborhood is paramount.

“The community deserves this facility. They deserve all the bells and whistles, all the space,’’ Herring said. “So I’m ecstatic about what’s about to happen, but it seems like it can’t come soon enough. I’m like a kid before Christmas and it’s like taking forever to get here.”

The bottom line, Herring said, is that having a pediatric center at Kingswood will be a godsend as Riverside’s population grows and will exceed what Nemours currently offers at the existing facility.

“Having them directly in the Riverside community with access to a couple hundred children in the building each day, with 800 new homes over the next several years in the community, you’re going to have the foot traffic,” he said.

Herring said he’s gratified to have Nemours as both a financial and health care partner, calling both critical elements for Riverside’s rejuvenation.

“Riverside is filled with potential, and with investments like this, we are building a future where every child, every family, has the opportunity to thrive,” Herring said. “This is not just about health care. It’s about hope, progress and building the foundation for generations to succeed.”