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“It’s not far, and it’s far better,” the Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital states in its explanation for its recent move from a long-standing location on Merrill Street in Menlo Park to its new spot at 2707 El Camino Real in North Fair Oaks.
The owners of the hospital bought the North Fair Oaks building in 2011 as part of an effort to expand its market, and later sold the building on Merrill Street, said owner Carol Schumacher. They looked for another location in Menlo Park, but, she said, “We couldn’t compete with real estate interests.” The former animal hospital location and surrounding buildings are slated to be redeveloped by project developer Chase Rapp into three new three- and four-story buildings at 1125 Merrill St. and 506 and 556 Santa Cruz Ave.
While the official open house for the new animal hospital won’t be held until December, Schumacher said, it is up and running, and a majority of clients followed them to the new location.
The new facility, which required about eight months of construction and two years of permitting — as well as a few months of running a noisy generator to power operations before a new transformer could be installed — now offers 10,000 square feet, including a parking garage, compared with the previous 6,600-square-foot facility. (Schumacher said she’s grateful to the buildings’ neighbors for putting up with the generator noise.)
Schumacher is also a member of the Menlo Park Historical Association, and has incorporated some historical sensibilities into the facility. In the garage, which was a mattress factory in the 1940s, she and her two co-owners who bought the longstanding practice in 1996, Janet Lowery and Holly Bourne, have enlarged family photographs from the ’40s hanging on the walls. Schumacher’s son, a glass artist, made the light fixtures there.
Select walls throughout the facility are adorned with reclaimed redwood from throughout the Bay Area, including a burned water tank from Sonoma; redwood from Hangar One at Moffett Field, the Almaden Reservoir, and the Bay Bridge; and a wine cask from a Martinez winery that survived Prohibition.
The facility has boarding rooms for pets and spaces for dental and medical care. Schumacher said the facility will also house a “luxury” boarding area in the near future.
“It’s a new facility with new equipment, but with the same people and the same clients,” she said.
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It’s a much nicer facility than the previous one in Menlo Park. Good parking on site as well.
Go Jan Lowry!
That’s my vet clinic! Woof, woof! Great lighting as well!
Free dog treats to boot!
We were long-time clients of Mid-Pen Animal Hospital. After a near-death experience exiting their garage onto El Camino traffic going 50+ miles per hour, we decided to change vets and chose one with a safer parking entrance and exit and less likelihood that a runaway pet would be killed in traffic. We are so disappointed by this new location.
@KateF: “After a near-death experience exiting their garage onto El Camino Real.”
You need to get out more and sharpen your driving skills. What do you when you’re pulling out of a parking garage in San Francisco? You use patience and exit when it is safe. Most merchants along that five block stretch in Redwood City have a similar type of parking and exiting situation. And people seem to be just fine with it.
I’ve been to the new vet center five times, and I’ve been grateful for the parking garage on every visit.