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285 Sunrise Ave.

Our Town by William Kelly: Island Animal Hospital prepares to move into new home

The island’s only veterinary clinic will reopen in a new location at 285 Sunrise Ave. during the first week of November.

Island Animal Hospital will be moving into the former Chase bank branch at the corner of Bradley Place and Sunrise Avenue. The target date for opening at the new site is Monday, November 4, according to Dr. Mary Ellen Scully, who owns the practice.

Island Animal Hospital’s last day at its present location at 262 Sunset Ave. will be Wednesday, October 30, Scully said. The move to the new location will occur on Thursday, October 31, through Sunday, November 3.

“The remodeling [of the new site] is nearly completed,” Scully told the Palm Beach Civic Association. “We have this week and next week to get everything ready for the move.”

The clinic was founded in 1995 in an office on Royal Palm Way and later moved into the bungalow at 262 Sunset Ave. Scully joined the practice in 2000 and assumed ownership in 2022.

The 104-year-old bungalow was purchased in 2022 by a corporation controlled by New England Development, which owns the White Elephant Palm Beach hotel next door. Island Animal Hospital has been operating there under a lease that was to expire in March 2024, but was extended to give the clinic more time to prepare its new location.

The clinic will be about a block north of its current location. The new location has a different layout than the bungalow – one floor instead of two – and slightly less interior space (3,200 square feet), Scully said.
It has its own parking lot (about 13 spaces), which will be a welcome change for Scully’s clients who have had to rely on time-limited parking spaces on Sunset Avenue.

Clients will enter the clinic through the main entrance facing east toward the Fedco Pharmacy.
Scully said the new building has a small lobby and an additional exam room, for a total of four. All the clinic’s files have been computerized to allow for better use of the new space.

“It’s nice and efficient,” Scully said. “It just has a different feel than [the bungalow], which was like walking into your living room. To try to recreate that would have been a failure.”

Island Animal Hospital has 13 staff members, including Scully and two other doctors, plus a surgeon who comes in once a month. The practice has about 2,500 active clients, Scully has said.

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