Local Doctor and Wife Team Complete the
Golflinks Community Clinic.
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
After some 2 or more years Grace Mapeso is happy to see her office project complete. “ It is very exciting to be moving to the new office. It is more space for us. We started planning in December 2005 getting the ball rolling and moved on Friday, November 16th after more
than two years with the applications and permits. July 7th of this year we started construction when Dominion Construction dug the hole,” smiled Grace Mapeso of the Golf Links Community Clinic. “ It was too much stress, a lot of stress. You have to make many decisions and make sure everything is ok. I had to juggle my schedule between work and coming here signing the papers, applications and dealing with the beauracracies of city hall. This was all on top of my normal work and trying to take care of my 10 year old, driving him to his activities
after school. Many decisions.”
“ I’m happy and excited in seeing the hard work come to fruition and the results are here. I’m really trying to enjoy the new office. It is just a five minute drive from where we live and a five minute or less drive to the hospital. It’s an ideal location especially if you are a specialist, as my husband is, and you get calls for an emergency. You can dart there and don’t lose much time for travel,” noted Grace. “ Dominion Construction were excellent. I enjoyed working with Dominion. They are very nice people and did the work well with no shortcuts. Bob Rodgers was excellent. This was our first attempt at building an office building. Overall I enjoyed the experience. I have no regrets going with Dominion at all. Ray Williamson of Dominion was behind me. He was one of the people instrumental to this project. I knew Ray before and I
asked him do you know anybody building a building near the hospital and it started that way. He knew someone who was selling the property. We got a good value on the land and Ray said Go for It. Positive. We are happy with our investment.”
The project ended up well for the Mapeso’s but not without some rocky points a long the way. “ We have confidence in the city but a lot of work has to be done to improve things. If they don’t improve things there will be less businesses coming to Thunder Bay. They need to make
it easier for the businesses to get going. There was lots of red tape and roadblocks that you had to overcome and tackle. You needed a lot of persistence not to give up. Determination and patience.” smiled Grace.
The new office provides a good flow in the office in terms of work. Everything is right there for the staff to use. Dr. Holmes is another general surgeon working with the Dr Mapeso team sharing an office. The Golflinks Community Clinic has also rented space to a chiropractor, Dr.
Tim LaBelle and Fairway Physio’s Jason Taddeo and Michael Poling. There are also three spaces left. “ I am trying to get the doctors who are planning to come to Thunder bay from Southern Ontario to lease space here. We have two Units left, one 1568 square feet and another Unit of 1868 square feet that can be divided into two offices. We are about 70% occupancy so it is a good start,” informed Grace. “ We used local people to support the local economy. Our philosophy is to help the economy using local people. Why go to the US. Why not buy things here as you are helping local people. If you are buying outside the money
goes and it doesn’t come back to Thunder Bay. If you buy here the money circulates in Thunder Bay and is helping people have jobs.”
Jason Taddeo, age 26 and Michael Poling, age 37, are Physiotherapists who both graduated from LU in kinesiology and are Masters grads from McMaster Physio Therapy program. “ We graduated about 3 or 4 years ago and have been practicing elsewhere. We decided to combine our skills and set up a practice centrally in the city so it is more accessible with convenient hours open 5 days a week from 8am to 8pm with shorter hours on Friday and unlimited evening hours,” smiled Jason Taddeo. “ We both knew Thunder Bay is where we wanted to settle. Our familiesare from here. I’m originally from Ignace. The offer was very, very
appealing for new centre and the ability to do our own thing now and develop in the future. We made the investment in Thunder Bay. We’d love to see it expand and see where we can take it in the building.”
