JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. – (WIVT/WBGH) Mothers and Babies Perinatal Network held an open house today at its brand new 20,000 square foot facility.

The building is located at 346 Grand Avenue in Johnson City. The new space will allow for children and parents to access prenatal care, sex education, health insurance assistance in a much more comfortable environment.

Executive Director Sharon Chesna says that originally, they were just looking for an additional space to make a second PALS Center to complement the existing one in Binghamton. However, the former location developed serious and unsafe structural problems.

Chesna says after talking with the Broome County and discovering funding options, Mothers and Babies ended up moving its headquarters to J.C.

“We closed for two days. We closed on Friday the 29th of July, and everybody came in. Our admins team was here to move, and then on Monday the 31st, everyone came in, worked diligently and every single person on staff was unloading boxes, setting up everything we had and literally we were re-open for business on August 1,” said Chesna.

Chesna says that they closed on the building on May 26, so they had a major time crunch in getting the space fully renovated. The president of the board of directors Susan Seibold-Simpson says to pull off the quick transition, it’s been all hands-on deck.

“The leadership team of Mothers and Babies has worked tirelessly. They have done extraordinary work to make this building thoughtful, welcoming, and just making it the best possible place for growth,” said Seibold-Simpson.

County Executive Jason Garnar as well as representatives from the Town of Union both presented Mothers and Babies with checks for $200,000 a piece.

The facility is now open and invites the public to check it out, especially the PAL Family Resource Center, which is a free, safe environment to play with your child.