An urgent care center is coming to West Penn Township.

The St. Luke’s West Penn Medical Center, to be located at 2092 West Penn Pike in West Penn Township, could be open by September, according to project developer/owner Joe Bennett.Bennett, who owns various automobile dealerships throughout the Greater Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre areas and has been spearheading a number of medical center projects in Carbon County, received conditional plan approval earlier this month from township supervisors.“We’re very pleased to be supporting the quality health care that’s available throughout Schuylkill and Carbon counties,” Bennett said. “We are moving as quickly as we can, because an urgent care with convenient hours is something that the community has embraced.”As part of their approval, supervisors attached several contingencies, changes Bennett said have been made and will be resubmitted to the township’s engineer for final approval.On April 11, “We began digging and setting the footers,” he said. “The footers were poured (Thursday).”Bennett said the nearly 9,000-square-foot urgent care center will be built along routes 309 and 895.It will have laboratory services for blood tests, an X-ray facility and a large physical therapy and wellness program.Bennett said the project is a joint venture with St. Luke’s and will expand the left and right sides of the existing building, which most recently housed Santander Bank before it closed several years ago. Before that, it had been Miners Bank.“Our tenant is very excited to be locating new services in that community,” he said. “This is part of the efforts for St. Luke’s Miners campus to expand their outreach into communities and provide services for the residents.”Bennett was complimentary of township officials.“We are very appreciative of the cooperation and encouragement by West Penn Supervisors and their secretary,” he said. “I have done a lot of projects; it’s really been extremely pleasing working with such reasonable, intelligent, cooperative people who are very progressive.”Bennett said the community has expressed its support for the project as well.“They were very positive,” he said. “We had so much positive feedback from West Penn Township residents that it’s been overwhelming.”