The first building to go up on the site will be a new home for Care Net Pregnancy Center of Thurston County.
Drohman's wife, Rita, serves on Care Net's board of directors. The Drohmans donated the building site to the nonprofit Christian-based organization, which offers support to any pregnant woman who has decided to carry her baby to term. Care Net serves 900 to 1,000 women each year, a number that has remained steady over the past three years.
Care Net is paying for construction of the 3,996-square-foot building, a project estimated to cost $520,000 including the donated property, which is valued at $120,000.
The new facility will add much-needed space and equipment, said Debbie Ewald, Care Net's executive director.
"It will improve the good care they (clients) are already getting," Ewald said.
The facility will see the addition of medical staff and counselors to provide medical advice, she said.
Care Net's capital campaign is $72,000 short of the amount needed to complete the project, said Carl Hancock, director of development.
The new building is twice as large as the remodeled house on State Street that Care Net now occupies. The additional space will house new medical staff and ultrasound equipment and a suite of rooms to be used to train volunteers and conduct classes for clients in parenting, nutrition and other subjects.
"It will give us more credibility in the community. It will draw more clients to our center, and draw more community support," Ewald said.
Four other medical office buildings are planned for the site, which could eventually include a 29-unit apartment complex on the back of the property.
Drohman isn't sure whether the Olympia market for medical office space is strong, but he knows Care Net needs larger offices to carry out its mission to counsel and support young women and families with unwanted pregnancies, he said.
He has faith that everything else will work out.
Rita Drohman called on her builder husband a couple of years ago to evaluate property the Care Net board wanted to buy. He vetoed the site because the building would have been difficult to adapt to Care Net's needs and wasn't near other medical services.
"I said, 'Rita, the Lord has to have a better location for Care Net than this,' " he recalled.
Bob Drohman contacted Gordon and Jean Craig, friends who owned the Lilly Road property, and did some wheeling and dealing.
The Craigs, who recently retired, lived in a home on the property near their former Eastside Plumbing business. Part of the deal for the sale was for Drohman to build them a new home.
"I built them a brand new house on Legacy Drive," Drohman said.
Now he's preparing to begin construction on the Lilly Road property. He expects the new Care Net center and an adjacent building to be completed by spring.
The development -- Johannes Medical Park -- is named in honor of Drohman's great-grandfather.
Olympian staff writer Kathryn Schneider contributed to this report.
Sharon Michael covers health and social services for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5431 or at smichael@olympia.gannett.com.
Johannes Drohman
The development on Lilly Road Northeast will be named Johannes Medical Park in honor of developer Bob Drohman's great-grandfather, who immigrated to the United States in 1831 when he was 20.
Johannes Drohman, his parents and four siblings, walked from Basel, Switzerland, to LaHavre, France, where they took a boat to Philadelphia. The trek across France took 27 days.
Johannes Drohman, who worked on the Erie Canal and farmed in Iowa, eventually made it as far west as Nebraska in 1879, the same year Lewis Drohman, Bob Drohman's grandfather, was born.
The only regret Johannes had in his old age was that he was living on the Oregon Trail in Nebraska, but never made it to the Oregon Territory, Bob Drohman said. His descendents eventually completed the journey in 1956 when Bob Drohman moved to Tacoma with his mother, Arlene, and brother, also named Lewis.
"This (medical park) is an acknowledgment of Johannes and all of those who made the trek west," Bob Drohman said.