“We really like it here, but we’re just tripping over each other,” Nye said. “We’re not able to do some of the services that we will be able to at the new building.”
That means new enhanced equipment and technology for in-demand services such as glaucoma and dry-eye treatment, he said. Visual therapy also will be added, as will staffing, which could potentially double from five full-time and four part-time employees.
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“That may not happen overnight, of course, but we’re just going to have a lot more room, a lot more efficiency and I’m hoping to bring on more doctors,” he said. “I’ve had associate doctors over my career. I haven’t for a few years now in part because at our current location … it’s very inefficient to try to have two doctors running simultaneously.
“In the new location, we could probably have three docs running at the same time.”
The four examining rooms Vision Source Hamilton offers on Dayton Street will be replaced by as many as 10 examining rooms at the new High Street location.
Nye has been practicing optometry at the practice since 1987. It was founded in 1920 by Dr. Hugh Baker. Nye moved the practice from Second Street next to the YMCA to 734 Dayton St. in 1990 and then to 712 Dayton St. in 2001.
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He said the practice had been looking for a new place for several years when it found it last April. That’s when Vision Source Hamilton purchased the new location under the Dayton Lane Properties LLC moniker for $155,000, according the Butler County Auditor’s Office.
“We wanted to stay fairly close to where we were, if possible,” Nye said. “We obviously draw a lot of patients from Hamilton specifically, but also Liberty and Fairfield Twp. and West Chester Twp. Where we’re at now, it’s very accessible for all those folks.”
Demolition work inside the building started early last month. When it opens later this year, Vision Source Hamilton’s new location will offer off-street parking and will be more handicap accessible.
“We’re excited about being part of the renaissance of downtown and we sort of feel like we’ll be almost a gateway coming into downtown, we’re just helping spread that renaissance further east,” Nye said. “We’re also, at that location, sort of a gateway into the Dayton Lane District, so we’re hoping that enhancing that property will enhance Hamilton, in general, and enhance our neighborhood.”
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