By Jim O'Sullivan

In a controversy threatening to drag in City Hall, civic leaders, and local health officials, a Hamilton Street landlord seeking to rent space to a Dorchester health care center for elder care has been stymied by another local health care center's request to kill the deal.

Dennis Flynn, owner of the old PMA Printing building at 121-129 Hamilton St., hoped to lease the now-vacant building to Uphams Corner Health Care Center, which is seeking to expand its outpatient care for senior citizens. But Flynn said he encountered opposition from Bowdoin-Geneva Main Streets and the Bowdoin Street Health Center, which is located around the corner from the Hamilton St. site.

Flynn's flirtation with the Uphams Corner facility ended when officials from the Bowdoin Street center asked Uphams Corner officials not to move to the nearby building. Flynn said he had been told by Uphams Corner officials that the building would suit their needs. At more than 17,000 square feet, Flynn said, the building comprises concrete, steel, and brick, with a flat floor that would offer easy accessibility to seniors in wheelchairs or using walkers.

Ed Grimes, executive director of the Uphams Corner center, was adamant that reluctance from the Bowdoin Street center to green-light the move preempted further discussion.

"Unless Bowdoin Street Health Center changes their mind, we couldn't consider it, because that's our sister center and we hold Bowdoin Street in the highest esteem and wouldn't consider offending it," he said.

But Grimes said the Uphams Corner facility is looking to expand its elder care program, which he said currently counts 115 enrollees, and hopes to expand by 115-150 over the next three years. Grimes said his staff has been looking for the past nine months at possible second sites, and that failure to find a second site would restrict expansion of the program currently based on Dorchester Avenue.

Grimes said an expanded facility would offer physical therapy, meals, Alzheimer's programs, medical care, and other services to seniors who would arrive by shuttle bus.

"With the graying of America, we have more and more people in this upper age bracket who require this type of care," Grimes said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, during a Tuesday event on Quincy St. near Jermaine Goffigan Park, said he was not aware of the issue, but said he would look into it.

"That's why these agencies need to work together," said Menino. "Why can't you have more elder services?"

Bowdoin Street executive director Adela Margules refused to cite the facility's reasons for opposing the move by the Uphams Corner center.

"I'm choosing not to answer that because I don't think there's a story there," Margules told the Reporter Monday. "I don't think it needs to be publicized. I don't think there's a story there, unless the owner's trying to create one."

Davida Andelman, a neighborhood activist, Bowdoin St. Health Center staffer, and member of Bowdoin-Geneva Main Streets, said she understands the need for more senior care, but said the Bowdoin-Geneva area would be served better by a commercial venture on the parcel.

"In the way of social service opportunities, we have plenty here, and we've done more than our fair share," Andelman said, citing residential facilities, the Log School, the health center, and other area services. Andelman said tight parking worries her, and suggested for the space a catering business or the expansion of Geneva Balloons, currently nearby at 223 Bowdoin St.

Geneva Balloons owner and proprietor Deilia Lang Jackson said she also opposes the Uphams Corner expansion to Hamilton St., and proposed instead a dentist's office or alcohol abuse treatment center.

"It's such a small business area and we have such small commercial space, I think we need to first look at some other commercial viabilities for it," Jackson said. "If I have to choose between a senior center and something else, right now I choose something else, because I don't think we've had the opportunity to look at anything else."

Bill Walczak, executive director of Codman Square Health Care Center, said he was not aware of the Uphams Corner center's desire to expand to the Hamilton St. site, adding that prospective turf wars between health centers is not a new phenomenon. During the 1990s, Walczak said, as health center networks formed, "here was a great feat that health centers would be pitted against each other. And, in fact, those networks did form. As it turned out, collegiality between the health centers was stronger than the desire to build market share."

Both Grimes and Margules insisted that a good relationship exists between the two centers, with Grimes emphasizing that the Uphams Corner center "would never, ever, ever do anything that yould offend the Bowdoin Street Health Center. We would never do anything that would cause the Bowdoin Street Health Center to be upset."

But Grimes said that if he received a nod of assent from Bowdoin St., he would reopen talks with Flynn.

Walczak said, "Facilities are very difficult to come up with, and if you have a need to find a facility to operate a program out of … it could be a situation where it looks like a good site and it suits your needs; on the other hand, it could be a little too close for comfort."

"These issues have been peaceably resolved in the past," Walczak said.

Flynn said he wants to rent the building because his mother, who lives in Las Vegas, recently underwent surgery and he plans to move to within six hours of her. "So, in case, of an emergency, I can jump in a car and just go," Flynn said. "That's one of the reasons I want to rent to somebody who's reliable." Flynn said that when he was approached by the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation about renting to Uphams Corner Health Care Center.

At a meeting of the Greater Bowdoin Neighborhood Association tonight, Flynn will make his case before the neighborhood. Flynn said he has popular support, and needs to change the minds of Bowdoin-Geneva Main Streets and the Bowdoin Street health center.

Andre Porter, the city's deputy director of neighborhood development, said Flynn received support from the Bowdoin-Geneva Merchants Association to bring the Uphams Corner center back to the table, and said City Hall would continue working with Flynn to find a tenant.

"You know how things work in Dorchester," Grimes said. "You need the approval of everybody, including the blessing of the Pope, to get anything done."