By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Construction is set to begin on the $42 million Tubman Health Center in Rainier Beach, a community-led healthcare facility designed to expand access to holistic and culturally responsive care in South Seattle.
The 26,000-square-foot center, located near the Rainier Beach light rail station, is expected to serve 12,000 patients annually while expanding wellness programming to reach more than 16,000 community members each year.
To mark the milestone, the Tubman Center for Health & Freedom will host a soil-turning ceremony on June 5, bringing together community members, partners, and elected officials to celebrate years of community planning, public investment, and collaborative leadership.
“This soil-turning for the Tubman Health Center is powered by the healing legacy of our peoples, and by the unwavering belief that we are entitled to generational health, freedom, and wholeness,” said Carmen Davis, Tubman Health Board President. “What makes this moment powerful is not just our arrival, but that we arrive together, in joy, carrying forward dreams that have long moved through us.”
The organization intentionally uses the term “soil-turning” rather than the more traditional “groundbreaking,” reflecting its relationship-centered approach to development in Rainier Beach, a neighborhood that has experienced decades of disinvestment, displacement, and broken promises.
“We’re not breaking anything in Rainier Beach,” said AyeNay Abye, CEO of Tubman Health. “We’re collectively building a medical home for those most marginalized.”
Expected to open in winter 2027, the center will provide allopathic and naturopathic primary care, behavioral health services, acupuncture, physical therapy, diagnostic imaging, and hydrotherapy services. The facility will also include family-sized treatment rooms, behavioral health suites, massage and acupuncture spaces, mammography and ultrasound services, movement and gathering areas, a grab-and-go café, herbalist services, and a community courtyard.
The project is being developed by Kristin Ryan of barrientosRYAN, built by Lydig Construction, and designed by EVOKE Studio Architecture and ARC Architects.
As Rainier Beach continues expanding community-centered initiatives and resources supporting vulnerable populations, Gregory Davis, managing strategist for the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, said the neighborhood is a natural home for the Tubman Health Center.
“The youth transit justice, construction trade access, food innovation, and community safety initiatives emanating from Rainier Beach welcome this trustworthy, integrative primary healthcare and health promotion model,” said Davis. “We anticipate Tubman continuing this legacy present in Rainier Beach, of quality service delivery, systems change, and policy information in support of the whole person.”
Over the past six years, Tubman Health has expanded healthcare access for underserved communities while emerging as an influential health policy voice in Washington state.
The organization has engaged more than 24,000 community members through its design process and launched initiatives including the Blaxinate vaccination campaign, created to better reach vaccine-hesitant communities.
Tubman Health has also established the Community Health Research Institute, piloted its Relational Medicine Model, and secured more than $34 million toward construction of the health center.
“It’s incredible what the Tubman Center for Health & Freedom has been able to achieve in just the past six years, and I am so excited for what is next,” said Seattle City Councilmember Eddie Lin. “Thanks to the vision and hard work of the Tubman Center, this land will be transformed into a hub for South Seattle to access the holistic and people-centered healthcare we deserve.”
Lin said the center will become an important component of the growing Rainier Beach community hub surrounding the light rail station.
“[The new center] will be an essential pillar of the growing community hub around the Rainier Beach light rail station, including health care, housing, and other services and programming, so that our community can truly thrive,” said Lin.
Securing more than $34 million toward the project’s total $42 million cost through public investment and community partnerships reflects Tubman Health’s organizational track record and broad coalition support built through years of community relationships.
“This is an investment in a model that’s already working,” said Danisha Jefferson-Abye, Tubman Health chief operating officer. “People believe in Tubman Health because we’ve been accountable to the community, because we’ve delivered, and because we are committed to building a future where everyone can be healthy and free.”
With less than $8 million remaining to complete the project, Tubman Health leaders say the community has already demonstrated support through participation, engagement, and investment in the organization’s vision.
“We have so much to celebrate, and even more within reach,” said Jefferson-Abye. “The need is real, the model is working, and this moment is possible because the community showed up. Now, we keep building.”
