SALEM - Local dialysis patients will soon have a nearby option for their daily treatments. During Tuesday night's planning board meeting, the board gave its unanimous blessing to Fresenius Medical Care, a national company offering outpatient dialysis services, to open a new clinic at 19 Keewaydin Drive.

The existing building has been owned by Brooks Properties for the past decade. Brooks Properties representative Joe Friedman said the dialysis company, which would rent the property, was seeking a change-of-use permit to turn the former warehouse space into a medical facility.

Friedman said plans call for some minor site improvements.

Built in the 1970s, the entire eastern side of Keewaydin Drive has since become an office-park campus, with plans to add two new buildings sometime in the near future. The building located at 19 Keewaydin Drive currently houses a daycare center and a career institute, with Fresenius planning to occupy the remaining space in the building's southeastern corner.

Fresenius Medical Care currently operates other New Hampshire clinics at Commons Drive in Londonderry, on Hampton Road in Exeter, and on Elm Street in Manchester. The Londonderry clinic has around 10 staff members and is open six days per week, with treatments currently offered in early mornings and mid-afternoons, according to company officials.

Patients typically receive treatments at the center three times each week, with treatments taking up to four hours for each visit. The center is also a drop-in spot for patients whose in-home treatment regimens are monitored.

Friedman said the clinic would occupy about 27,000 square feet of the property, with plans in the works to replace the former loading dock area with a dozen new parking spaces. Town planner Ross Moldoff said the site has no existing wetlands or flooding issues, though the new tenant would be required to obtain a sewer connection permit as a condition of site approval.