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Courtesy Development Associates of Agawam

Clinical & Support Options is the first tenant to secure space in the Northampton I-91 Professional Center, a two-building office park under construction on Atwood Drive. One of the buildings is shown in this rendering.

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GORDON DANIELS

Workers cover the underground plumbing Monday in preparation for the arrival of steel beams so construction can continue on the new office building off Mount Tom Road in Northampton. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site on Thursday.

NORTHAMPTON - Greenfield-based Clinical & Support Options plans to consolidate its headquarters and two Northampton clinics into a much-anticipated office park under construction off Interstate 91 near the Clarion Hotel.

The behavioral health agency is the first tenant to secure space in the Northampton I-91 Professional Center, which eventually will be a two-building office park that developers and city officials envision as a bustling home of medical and professional offices.

"It's generating a lot of interest now that people realize the project is moving ahead," said Ken Vincunas, general manager and owner of Development Associates of Agawam.

Clinical & Support Options will lease the second and third floors of a building currently under construction. Vincunas said he is in negotiations with several other possible tenants for space on the main floor of that building and for space in a second building slated to go up next door.

The move will enable the agency to expand its services and add staff, said Karin Jeffers, president and chief executive officer of Clinical & Support Options. The business offers a range of mental health services.

She said about 75 people will move into the new building later this year, but that over time the organization intends to hire an additionally 25 clinicians and other staff to handle the expected service expansions. The business employs about 450 people and serves 6,000 clients in all four western Massachusetts counties and the North Quabbin area.

"We have had a steady stream of referrals and demand," said Jeffers, attributing the increase to emotional stresses generated by the ongoing recession. "We've been busy."

The $15 million office park, being co-developed by hotelier J. Curtis Shumway, is an important development in the city, and is in an area where city officials have hoped to see some action for some time. City officials and developers will mark the occasion Thursday with an 11 a.m. ground-breaking ceremony at the construction site.

"It's taken a lot longer, but this is exactly what we envisioned," said Wayne Feiden, director of the Northampton Office of Planning and Development.

A decade ago, the city rezoned the site and sold a portion of the development area to a previous owner. It also permanently preserved about 8 acres of land next to the office buildings.

The idea, then and now, was to encourage economic development in areas off the interstate, particularly for high-traffic users such as medical offices that might not fit downtown but that are valuable businesses for a community to have.

If developed as proposed, Feiden said, the office park will likely be the most significant new office project the city has seen in decades.

"It's a big deal," he said.

Plans call for a pair of three-story, side-by-side buildings to be constructed on 4 acres off Route 5 on the south of Atwood Drive. The site is across from the Clarion Hotel and not far from I-91's Exit 18.

Construction of the first 39,000-square-foot building and associated 369-space parking lot began last year and is expected to be complete in August.

The second building will have about 43,000 square feet of space. Vincunas said it will be built as soon as developers have enough tenants lined up.

In addition to Clinical & Support Options, Vincunas said, developers are banking on interest increasing now that shovels are in the ground.

"Our hope is that people will realize it's actually happening," he said. "When something is two years away, it's hard for people to see that."

In addition to being close to the interstate with ample parking, Vincunas said, many tenants like the idea of being able to custom-design space that fits the needs of their operation.

"The beauty of the space is that it's a shell," said Vincunas. "There's a chance to get a floor plan designed for you, which is hard to come by."

That, along with the central location and accessibility for staff and clients, were among the many attractions that drew Clinical & Support Options to the site, Jeffers said.

"It's exciting," she said. "Finding this much space in one place and to be able to consolidate our operations and services wasn't easy."

When complete in late summer, the agency plans to move its administrative offices into the building, instead of maintaining split headquarters in Greenfield, Springfield and Northampton.

The organization also intends to consolidate two of its Northampton clinics into the building. These include an outpatient mental health clinic now at 10 Main St. in Florence, and a family support and intensive care clinic downtown at 17 New South St.

The extra space will also provide room to expand outpatient mental health services, hire more clinicians and welcome more clients, said Jeffers, who said the organization is "crunched for space now."

A 24-hour emergency psychiatric services clinic that Clinical & Support Options took over from ServiceNet two years ago will remain in its current location at 29 N. Main St. in Florence, Jeffers said.

She adds that the organization will continue to have a strong presence in Greenfield, where it operates an emergency psychiatric services clinic, an outpatient mental health clinic and the Green River House.

The office park is being developed by Atwood Drive LLC, whose owners are part of the Hampshire Hospitality Group that owns and operates the Clarion and four hotels in Hadley. Atwood Drive owners include Shumway, chief operating officer of Hampshire Hospitality Group, and Eileen O'Leary Sullivan, of Agawam.

The Planning Board approved a site plan and special permit for the project last March. The board asked for several conditions, including a pair of covered bike racks with enough room to house a dozen bicycles each, showers in each building for riders to use and construction of a bus stop structure with a roof close to Route 5. Vincunas said those conditions will be met.

This is the third attempt to develop the property. In addition to scrapping plans for an office park earlier this decade, previous developers did not move ahead with plans for a hotel on the site, for which the city approved a permit in 2000.