By: David DiPino dddipino@tribune.com

In 1976, dentist Miles Spodak took a chance on opening his small business on a stretch of West Atlantic Avenue so barren that he said a game of stick ball in the middle of the two-lane road at 2 p.m. would have no chance of being interrupted by traffic.

Fast forward 36 years, and Spodak and son Dr. Craig Spodak are announcing the groundbreaking of their new 13,000-square-foot, “green” LEED-certified dental facility at 3911 W. Atlantic Ave.

Not only will the new campus be the greenest in the city’s history, according to Craig Spodak, it will create as many as 30 full-time jobs and become the nation’s hub for state-of-the-art dental labs.

With 18 dental operatories, laboratory space, offices, gathering spaces, a learning center, a waiting area and support spaces, just about everything one could pack in a dental supercenter is under one roof.

Craig Spodak, the winner of the 2012 Delray Beach Business Person of the Year Award, said the business is a dental industry leader and the No. 1 success story in the files of Delray Beach small businesses. The Spodak Dental Group employs eight dentists and 20 employees.

The Spodak Dental Group’s new site could become the first LEED-certified medical facility in South Palm Beach County. Its construction will employ Downtown Delray Beach small businesses Richard Jones Architecture, a local architect, and Sequil Systems Inc., a “green” LEED building consultant.

“So far the plans include capturing rainwater to reuse for irrigation, use LED energy efficient lighting, and build with non-toxic materials. It’s going to be a building with healthy materials and also take into account designs utilizing the sun and shade areas,” said Joe Snider of Sequil Systems.

A landscape architect who helped in a $3 million re-design of Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens a decade ago is involved in developing a nature trail at the Spodak Dental Group’s new digs. Connie Roy-Fisher, ASLA, landscape architect and principal of Roy-Fisher Associates Landscape, will design the Spodak trail.

Spodak is at the forefront of the national trend to develop “green” buildings that offer numerous benefits, including a healthier work environment, enhanced ventilation and non-toxic low-emitting materials, water conservation and storm-water management.

“I embarked on the creation of this new facility because I wanted to provide my patients with the most advanced dental care in an environment that would complement the revolutionary services we deliver,” Spodak said.

“As important as all of my team’s advanced treatments are, it is equally important that my patients’ surroundings promote their health and well-being.”

Local artist Michael Singer will also help design, and KAST Construction will build the campus.

Spodak said the Spodak Dental Group is nationally renowned as a guiding force in dental care due to patient-focused practice featuring general dentists, an endodontist, a periodontist, an oralmaxillofacial surgeon, MD anesthesiologists, and a ceramic artist who works on-site in the dental laboratory.

“The new building, scheduled to open in late summer 2013, will be an environmentally sound, holistic building with lush landscape that is designed to comfort patients and provide an array of environmental benefits,” Spodak said.

Snider said the project is planned for LEED certification potentially at the Silver level. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) consists of four category levels (Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum) for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

“Every operatory has a vertical expanse of glass from floor-to-ceiling, and three areas have full floor-to-ceiling glass that wrap to the roof and Solatubes that provide natural light for enclosed interior spaces. I’m creating this building with the patient experience in mind,” Spodak said.