A downtown medical clinic is expanding its offices, its hours and the clients it serves.

Heartland Medical Clinic, 619 Vt., will double in size in February when it moves to a 7,000-square-foot office on the lower level of Lawrence Riverfront Plaza at Sixth and New Hampshire streets.

Paul Gray, pastor of Heartland Community Church, which oversees Heartland Medical, said Wednesday that the expansion would allow the clinic to offer services six days a week from the current 12.5 hours a week and to widen its customer base.

Currently, Heartland provides free services only to the uninsured. But Gray said it would begin seeking paying patients and would begin marketing itself to area businesses looking to cut health care costs.

“We feel like we can virtually cut a business’ costs in half,” he said. “We’re a nonprofit, so, first of all, we don’t have to pay taxes. And a lot of our staff are volunteers, and as a nonprofit we have lower salaries.”

Gray said he had been talking with several mid-size Lawrence businesses about using the clinic’s services. He is close to completing a deal with Allen Press, but declined to give other details. Rand Allen, chief executive of Allen Press, was not available for comment.

Gray said the decision to expand the clinic, now in the church’s basement, was arrived at as a means to better fund its core mission: serving the poor and uninsured.

The Rev. Paul Gray, left, and Dr. Dennis Sale help run the Heartland Medical Clinic, which is moving from its current facility to a 7,000-square-foot space in the Lawrence Riverfront Plaza, Sixth and New Hampshire streets. The clinic will expand its services to help more than the uninsured. Gray and Sale are pictured Wednesday at the clinic's current location at 619 Vt.

The clinic operates on an annual budget of about $40,000, he said, largely funded through donations from area churches and individuals. The addition of paying customers is expected to increase the clinic’s budget to about $250,000 a year.

With its staff of one doctor, one nurse and a host of volunteers, the clinic now serves about 300 people per month. At the new location, Gray said he expected patient numbers to grow to 1,000 per month and the staff to double, to two doctors and two nurses.

Dan Simons, managing member of Riverfront LLC, which owns the former mall building, said Heartland signed a three-year lease for space on the bottom floor at the east end of the building.

“We’re excited about it,” Simons said. “Health care is such a huge problem. There are a lot of people who can’t afford good health care. We think this could be a great opportunity for the community.”

Simons said the lease wouldn’t have any affect on the proposal he has made to city officials to buy the former mall building as a site for a new Lawrence Public Library.

Simons is director of new ventures for The World Company, which owns the Journal-World and Sunflower Broadband.