Bennett’s Creek Veterinary Care has broken ground on a future larger new facility that will also be on Bridge Road.

Co-owners Rob Johnson and Brandon Wichman are moving the clinic from its Bennett’s Creek Shopping Center location of the past 15 years, to a new building between the Bridge Road AAA and Bennett’s Creek Home Away from Home, the pet boarding facility they also co-own.

“The plan all along has been to move out the leasehold (building),” Johnson said. “Now the timing is right to do that.”

Site work at the new location began last week, according to Johnson. The new building, which the pair hopes to open in September or October, will triple the current footprint to 9,000 square feet, giving the clinic much more room to move.

“We are crammed in around our ears” at the present location, Johnson said.

The new building will incorporate six examination rooms instead of the current four, five treatment tables instead of two, and a dedicated area for dentistry, Johnson said.

“There’s little visibility here, and this will (be) a prime location,” Wichman said.

Johnson and Wichman say they took turns attending the practice after opening it in 1999. Currently, with Emily Worthy, the clinic has three veterinarians.

The new building would allow room for the business to grow with the surrounding community, Wichman said.

The clinic and boarding facility employs 22 in total, Johnson added, including full- and part-time. “Certainly we’ll have room for expansion on that,” he added.

Johnson said the new building would continue to have separate waiting areas for dogs and cats. The clinic and boarding facility will share a parking lot with more spaces, he said.

Other new features, Johnson said, would include an expanded lobby and waiting area, a larger intensive-care unit, and an examination room dedicated to “consultation and end-of-life scenarios” that’s “more comfortable for animals and their owners.”

The building would also have more outdoor exposure, Wichman said, with outdoor exercise runs — something that was not an option at the shopping center.

Wichman also said the location of the new building, next to the boarding facility, would make life easier for any boarding clients requiring medical care or, for example, vaccinations.

“It will be nice to have everything there together, to make it a little more convenient for clients,” he said.

The clinic, Johnson added, has “worked to provide the best care, (but) we just haven’t been able to provide the best facility; so we wanted to reflect in the new facility that quality that we have been able to provide in our care for all these years.”