Evergreen Health and Community Access Services (CAS) Celebrate Ken-Bailey Project Groundbreaking

A new comprehensive healthcare center to be built at the intersection of Kensington and Bailey Avenues

BUFFALO, NY – Evergreen Health and Community Access Services (CAS), celebrated the groundbreaking of the new comprehensive healthcare center coming to the intersection of Kensington and Bailey Avenues on Thursday, September 12 at 10 a.m.

Evergreen Health and Community Access Services (CAS) are leading the Ken-Bailey Project to ensure inclusive and judgment-free health care is accessible to more people in the community with a long-term goal of eradicating health inequity through unconditional care. The opening of the new comprehensive healthcare center is projected for early 2026.

The 36,000-square-foot, three-story building was designed by Buffalo-based architecture and engineering firm CPL. See the building renderings linked here. The look of the new healthcare center was shaped by feedback from the community at various neighborhood events, block clubs, and community meetings, in addition to input from community stakeholders and advisors and Evergreen and CAS employees.

Evergreen and CAS partnered with Hallmark Planning & Development, a Buffalo-based minority-owned urban planning consulting firm specializing in community planning, public engagement, placemaking, and commercial real estate, on community outreach efforts to meaningfully engage with the surrounding community.

The comprehensive healthcare center will feature services from both Evergreen Health and Community Access Services, including but not limited to primary care, pharmacy services, HIV prevention, testing and education, community mobilization, Hepatitis C care, gynecological services, reentry services, on-site care coordination, financial counseling, multiuse meeting rooms with kitchen access for community groups and block clubs, office space for community partners, a food distribution center, and employment readiness services.

“To meet the needs of the community, it’s critical that the Ken-Bailey Project is unconditionally accessible and culturally sensitive. We’re not just going in with our own big ideas. We spent over a year meeting with people in the community, really listening to what they want from a new healthcare hub in their neighborhood. What services do they need? What do they want the space to look and feel like? Our goal is for this to be a community project, not just an Evergreen and CAS project, but a shared space where we can come together and really move the needle on health equity in this community,” said Ray Ganoe, president and CEO of Evergreen Health.

“This project means improved access to equitable health services in Buffalo and beyond. A new health hub will allow us to expand the types of services we provide as well as bring even more community partners directly to the neighborhood, eliminating the need for individuals to leave their neighborhoods to seek the services they need and deserve. I believe that this health hub will close the health disparity gap that has impacted this community for decades,” said Kim Brown, executive director of Community Access Services.

Expanding access to unconditional care builds upon Evergreen Health’s mission to provide inclusive, compassionate, respectful, and judgment-free services, especially for those who are living with chronic illness or who are underserved by the healthcare system.

Since 2003, CAS, an affiliate of Evergreen Health, has connected the community to quality healthcare and supportive services, including HIV testing and counseling, health support groups, nutrition outreach and education, food donations, and more.

For more information about the new comprehensive healthcare center at the intersection of Kensington and Bailey Avenues, visit KenBaileyProject.org.