CENTRAL POINT — One local civic organization's loss will mean accessible health care for uninsured and low-income residents who live on the north end of the Rogue Valley.

La Clinica Del Valle on Friday purchased the Central Point Masons' unfinished 10,000-square-foot lodge and 1.5 acres on Hamrick Road for $965,000.

"We felt pretty good about the kind of use that will go into that building," said lodge spokesman Bill Best. "The structure was valued at a million-three, but we took a little less and we're carrying the note for them."

La Clinica Development Director Maria Underwood said the purchase would help the nonprofit's goal of meeting growing health care needs for the Rogue Valley's uninsured and low-income residents.

"We purchased the property with a desire, at some future point, to open a facility out there," Underwood said Friday, adding a new clinic could open as soon as 2008-09.

"Our plans are to keep up with the growing demand for services at our clinics. We've grown 130 percent in the last five years. "

"If we continue our growth trend, we're going to reach capacity at our current sites very quickly."

La Clinica currently has clinics in west Medford and Phoenix. Underwood said Central Point was ideal for a third facility because of its senior population and because some 2,000 clients are from the area.

Underwood said the clinic had been scouting for locations for over a year.

The Masons purchased the 1.5-acre property and 7-acre cemetery next door for $2,000 in 1991 from the Order of Odd Fellows, which had previously cared for the graveyard.

In 2002, the Masons voted to sell their Pine Street home of 80 years, the century-old YMCA building, for $300,000 to Cash Connections Pawn Shops, planning to put proceeds toward construction of a new lodge along Hamrick Road.

Initial estimates called for construction costs of $1 million. Ample amounts of volunteer labor and donated materials helped fuel the project. But with $500,000 in work left to do, lodge members opted last year to put the building up for sale, at which time local real estate agents valued the building — lacking air-conditioning, plumbing, electricity and pavement — at $1.3 million.

Central Point City Administrator Phil Messina said it was unfortunate the Masons could not complete their own project, but said the community would benefit from a future La Clinica location.

"We think they'd be an asset and we would be pleased to have them here," Messina said.

"I think it's a really good, creative use of that building," he said. "They came in about a year and a half ago looking for property and we pointed them in a few different directions, then the deal with the Masons came up where it just wasn't a viable option for them to finish their building, so it was a really good match."

Best said the lodge would carry all but $200,000 of the purchase price. Of the $200,000 realized immediately, real estate agent fees, closing costs and leftover construction costs leave the Masons with little toward a new lodge — for now.

"We're carrying the note for two years, so they'll pay us two years down the road," Best said. The $40,000 to $50,000 in donated labor and materials will require consideration in coming months, he said.

"Some of the folks who helped us build would like to have their donations back," Best said.

With its 100-year anniversary coming up, Best said the lodge was still interested in finding a new home.

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer.