DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Woodland Eye Clinic recently opened the doors to its new, highly visible facility in Dyersville.
For eight years, Woodland Eye Clinic conducted its operations in a modest building near Fareway, but Dr. Josh Woodland said, to his surprise, it just wasn’t enough.
“I never expected we would have outgrown that space,” he said. “It just got to the point where we were so busy that we just didn’t have the capacity.”
When that reality become abundantly clear, Woodland began scouting for locations and ended up purchasing a lot with a home on it at 819 Ninth St. SE.
The week after the Major League Baseball game in Dyersville last year, demolition work on that house began, marking the beginning of the construction process.
With the past two-plus years being defined by material scarcity and elevated prices as far as construction goes, Woodland said the business surprisingly ran into few supply-chain related issues or delays, but he credited most of that to the work of a savvy contractor.
“Our contractor, Greg Rausch, was able to keep things moving forward. If one thing got delayed, he just moved on to a different project on the building,” he said. “All things considered, we were able to get this built in 10 or 11 months, so it went about as good as expected considering all the different circumstances we’re dealing with right now.”
The worst part of the construction process, Woodland said, was that employees had to drive by the construction site to get to work for nearly a year.
“We were itching to get in there,” Woodland said. “Now, everyone has their own space. At our old office, we had a few employees that were kind of shoved into a corner or they would have to turn a little nook into a desk space. We were just running out of room.”
The extra breathing space also has allowed Woodland to expand its employee base.
“We’ve hired four new staff members since opening to allow us to increase capacity right away, so the new building was a job generator, too,” Woodland said.
Woodland said that in the new facility, the business is able to take on more clients while still offering the same general services.
“We were also able to increase the number of doctor hours we can offer,” he said. “And eventually, we would like to add another doctor.”
Woodland said he doesn’t see the practice relocating again any time soon as it has a great footing and clientele base in Dyersville.
Woodland said he strives to match the longevity of Dr. Paul Ahern, of Midwest Optometric Associates, whose practice merged with the Woodland Eye Clinic several years ago before Ahern retired.
“Dr. Ahern was here for 40 years, and I plan on doing pretty close to that,” he said.
Woodland Eye Clinic will host a grand opening Sept. 9, which will include a dedication ceremony for several rooms in the new building as well as a frame trunk show.