Iowa Health – Des Moines is working with three developers in Greater Des Moines to relocate two clinics and open a new one.

Highland Park Family Physicians, which is located at 1530 E. Euclid Ave., plans to move next summer to a proposed 11,000-square-foot medical office building near the intersection of East 14th Street and Guthrie Avenue in Des Moines.

William C. Knapp LC has asked the city of Des Moines to rezone five parcels in that area to neighborhood retail commercial, which would allow the company to move the project forward.

The Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission recommended that the Knapp request be approved, and the City Council has set Nov. 8 as the date of a public hearing.

According to Gerry Neugent, president and CEO of Knapp Properties Inc., two of those properties have already been acquired by William C. Knapp LC, which plans to purchase the other three if the resolution passes.

Jean Shelton, clinic administrator with Iowa Health, said her organization also plans to relocate a West Des Moines pediatrics clinic to the site of a former Quality Ford dealership at 1271 Eighth St.

Hurd Commercial Real Estate Services purchased that property in May 2009. Richie Hurd, who handles sales and marketing for the company, said the clinic will occupy 6,500 square feet of the 29,000-square-foot building.

Tom Kieffer, director of facilities management with Iowa Health Physicians & Clinics, declined to disclose the clinic’s current location as a lease has yet to be signed. But he said the relocation is expected to take place in early spring.

Hurd said the developer plans to gut the building and improve the exterior as it seeks more tenants.

Iowa Health also plans to open a family practice medical clinic near the entrance of Copper Creek in Pleasant Hill. Shelton said Hubbell Realty Co. will likely break ground on that approximately 6,000-square-foot building within the next few months.

Shelton said Iowa Health – the parent organization of Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Iowa Lutheran Hospital, Blank Children’s Hospital and Methodist West Hospital – operates nearly 60 clinics in Greater Des Moines.

“We primarily lease space for clinics,” she said, noting that as Iowa Health grows, it prefers to keep its options open so it can best meet the needs of the communities it serves. “If a clinic is doing well, we tend to outgrow our space in about 10 years,” she said.

“Most of the ownership is tied to a hospital campus,” Shelton said. Excluding hospital space, she estimated that Iowa Health owns fewer then 5 percent of the facilities where it operates.