COLORADO SPRINGS — It's a quiet weekday afternoon at the former AMC movie theater in southeast Colorado Springs.
Old popcorn buttering machines, the eccentric carpets, and remnants of the theater still remain in the building near S. Academy and Fountain Boulevard.
Despite closing over a year ago, people are making their way into the theater- this time for a different attraction: a COVID-19 vaccination site.
Lighting up the LED marquees at each auditorium is the group behind the new location: Matthews-Vu Medical Group.
The medical group opened the clinic on Monday, where about 130 people were scheduled to receive the vaccine. The clinic decided to move its vaccination site to the southeast to help expand access to an area with limited options.
"We will give a vaccine at any of our locations but availability and access is important to us," Mary Burgin, Director of Operations at Matthews-Vu Medical Group said.
Using the old movie theater as a vaccination site is just the beginning. Burgin says next week the site will also include testing for Coronavirus and in the future, it will be the new home of the Matthews-Vu southeast clinic.
"Really the ability to have a quick appointment with a provider, it's just not here," Burgin said.
Burgin says the plan is to move the location by next year as they work to build a medical campus with imaging facilities and physical therapy.
"We're serving about 65 patients a day on average," Burgin said, "some days it's 140 some days are 30, it really just depends on the need."
Matthews-Vu opened up its southeast clinic in 2019 to expand care in the area. Peak Vista also opened a clinic around the same time off of Jet Wing Drive.
"We want to come into areas that have lower access and provide it and that was evident in this area that they needed access," Burgin said.
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