Doctors’ offices and a warehouse expansion are among developments in the works for the city of Columbia.

Mercy Clinic Family Medicine will be located at 1019 Valmeyer Road. It will be a primary care physicians’ office at the corner of Valmeyer Road and Admiral Parkway in the former location of Video Exchange next to Columbia National Bank, according to city administrator Jimmy Morani.

The lot, while prime commercial real estate, has over the years faced chronic flooding issues. But a larger culvert under Valmeyer Road along with slightly raising the elevation of the property and other work have remedied the problem, making the site once again a viable plot to develop.

Mercy Clinic’s construction of nine primary care locations from south St. Louis County to Jefferson County in Missouri and Monroe County in Illinois was announced in June.

There is no timetable for the Columbia clinic as of yet, but Mercy said it plans to have all nine clinics open by the middle of 2020.

In other development news, about 4.3 acres at 1931 Westgate Drive off DD Road on the north end of the city limits near Mozel and River Lakes Golf Course were purchased earlier this month. So far, there are no specific plans for its development, according to Morani.

Budnick Converting, which has been located in Columbia since the 1950s, recently broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot expansion adjacent to its current location at 200 Admiral Weinel Boulevard. There is also room to add an additional 77,000 square feet of space in the future. 

The expansion includes about 75,000 square feet of warehousing and manufacturing space and 25,000 square feet of office space, and will allow the company to expand its workforce of 89 by about 10 percent over the next year, according to owner Ann Wegmann.

The construction is expected to be completed in June 2019.

In other Columbia news:

• The upgrade to the city’s outdoor warning system is fully functional now that the fire and severe weather alarms have been added to the new sirens and the old ones have gone offline.

The new system, purchased for $80,000, uses five sirens to replace the previous three-siren system. With the addition of two siren locations, more than 90 percent of city residents can hear warnings compared to the estimated 9 percent that could hear them on the prior system. 

The new system also includes voice capabilities, which will be used in a limited capacity.

• Fall leaf removal will wrap up Dec. 14. Residents are reminded to place leaves unbagged in rows within four feet of the street, behind the curb and sidewalk. Call City Hall at 281-7144 for more information.