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Trying to satisfy customer demand, Altra Federal Credit Union and Franciscan Skemp Healthcare last Wednesday broke ground for two new buildings at the corner of Hale Road and Holmen Drive.

Officials from both companies cited Holmen’s growth and the need to relieve congestion at their other locations as factors in the decision to construct two new buildings in the village.

Holmen Trustee Mark Seitz, who chairs the village’s Economic Development Committee, welcomed the two organizations, saying their expanding presence will improve the quality of life as well as add to the economic foundation for the area.

“We’re thrilled,” Seitz said. “It’s really important for Holmen to expand its portfolio of businesses. These two organizations add to not only Holmen’s economical development, but its quality of life. They will make wonderful neighbors and we’re happy to have them.”

The two organizations will share a four-acre site. The credit union owns 1.5 acres and Franciscan Skemp owns 2.5 acres.

Through their existing site at Holmen High School, Altra Federal Credit Union has about 2,000 members. Gerald Forsythe, Altra president and CEO, noted, “We’ve enjoyed our partnership with the school district and look forward to participating in more community activities. …Holmen is a growing, thriving community and we’re looking forward to being a part of it.”

Tom Brock, senior vice president of Altra, said the company had been looking for property for a couple years. “We’re excited about finally getting a place,” Brock said. “It’s great we were able to collaborate with (Franciscan) Skemp to get this property from Elmwood Partners.”

The new Altra building will be a 5,000-square-foot facility featuring a full-service lobby with the latest technology, drive-up lanes, safe deposit boxes and a 24-hour drive-up ATM.

The new clinic building will almost triple the amount of space Franciscan Skemp currently has at its existing 7,500-square-foot facility near Holmen Square. There are approximately 20-24 ancillary staff at the existing site serving the public as well as four family practitioners, a part-time pediatrician, and three behavioral health practitioners.

The new building, which represents the fourth generation of Franciscan services in Holmen, will be 20,000 square feet. Core services would include family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, pharmacy and an outreach suite to allow visiting specialists from other locales to see patients without compromising upon the space used by the primary care physicians.

“Today marks the beginning of bringing to Holmen a full spectrum of health care backed up by Mayo Health System,” said Ron Nesse, president and CEO of Franciscan Skemp.”

John Nemec, vice president for regional services, said the company had not yet had a chance to consider what will happen to the existing facility once it is vacated. “We’ve had many requests from the community about the site,” Nemec said. “We will look at new uses for the building once we vacate it. Right now we have not identified a need (internal) for it today, but we’ve not had much time to look at it and probably won’t for a while until all this craziness is settled down.”

Altra expects to open its new building April 1, 2009, but Franciscan Skemp didn’t want to be held to a specific date, saying it would be open in spring 2009.