Melissa Carter Ray is pleased to announce the development of 345 West Memorial Drive for The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic, a new business for Hinesville. Vacant for over 25 years, Melissa purchased the 2.85-acre tract as an investment a few years ago. When the Clinic was looking for a Hinesville location and unable to find an ideal building, she and her broker, fellow Liberty County native Marian Elaine Smith, worked with architect and planner, Robert Portman of Barnard Architects, to design a customized office for them.

The ground breaking for the building will be July 27 and the Clinic will open for business in 2022.

The 5,000 square-foot building will utilize just under an acre of the site Ray purchased, leaving just under two acres available for the development and use of others. “We hope to attract other businesses into the far western end of Memorial Drive. While there has been a lot of money put into the infrastructure of Memorial Drive and some institutional development, this will be the first all-private ground-up building,” commented Ray, a long-time Hinesville Downtown Development Association and LCDA board member. “I’m proud to be a part of that. We are developing the western bookend of Memorial Drive.”

Ray’s site, located one-half mile from Ft. Stewart’s Main Gate, is in close proximity to many educational facilities, across the street from the newly constructed Glen Oaks apartment complex, and immediately adjacent to the #1 Domino’s Pizza in the State of Georgia. The two remaining sites will be well-located to capture the traffic and activity from the recent development and benefit from the pleasant environment provided by the Memorial Drive infrastructure. “This site will be a great location for many types of businesses. The focus on veterans, the surrounding educational facilities, the new multifamily development, and the proximity to Ft. Stewart’s Main Gate create layers of users for medical and professional offices, banking and institutional services, restaurants, coffee shops, general stores, and hotels, which would all prosper here,” says Marian E. Smith of Strategic Commercial Real Estate. Marian is marketing the remaining land for sale and developing the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic Building with Melissa.

Memorial Drive is a vital boulevard to the city core, connecting Highway 84/Oglethorpe Highway to General Stewart Way. The previous sales tax-funded infrastructure investment was used to create sidewalks, medians, lighting, a roundabout at Main Street, landscaping and tree planting, which sparked a renaissance for Memorial Drive. The past decade has seen substantial institutional development: The Veterans’ Administration Clinic at Hwy. 84, The Liberty County Board of Education Building, the new Live Oak Public Library, and Georgia Southern University’s Hinesville campus. There have also been two public-private multi-family developments on the Memorial Drive corridor, Renaissance Park Senior Village and the $10 million, 70-unit Phase I of Glen Oaks Apartments. The GSU/Parker Business Incubator, spearheaded by The City of Hinesville, is also soon to be constructed. “The construction of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic helps support the vision intended for Memorial Drive and its redevelopment,” Hinesville City Manager Kenneth Howard said. “It is great to see the energy that now buzzes along this roadway as new development springs up left and right, offering more and more services to our community and its residents.”

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic in Hinesville will open in 2022 and serve post-9/11 veterans and their families, as well as active-duty service members and their families, in the area with high-quality mental health care. The clinic will be part of Cohen Veterans Network, which offers brief, client-centered therapy for a variety of mental health issues including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, adjustment issues, anger, grief and loss, and more. The Clinic was founded by philanthropist Steven A. Cohen, who made a $275M commitment to launch a network of mental health clinics in April of 2016 to serve veterans and families. They have 19 additional locations throughout the country.

Along with the much-needed services they’ll provide to the Hinesville/Ft. Stewart community, The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic will also bring nearly 14 new jobs, with a significant economic impact. “This is great news for Hinesville and Liberty County but it’s also great news for our veterans and their families,” said U.S. Representative Buddy Carter. “Not only will this clinic create good paying jobs but, most importantly, it will help to improve the quality of and increase access to mental health resources in our area. We look forward to working with The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic to see this project through to completion.”

The project received unanimous approval from Hinesville City Council with the support of the Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission on April 15. “We’re very excited for the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic to soon begin construction,” Hinesville Mayor Allen Brown said. “At the City of Hinesville, we support our military families and the development of our city’s core. This project is a win-win.”