The City of Maricopa’s plans for a second hospital and medical complex have fallen through a second time.
Ricky Horst, the City of Maricopa’s chief strategy officer who last week retired as city manager, confirmed today that on Monday he represented the city in terminating an agreement with hospital developer Phoenix-based S3 Biotech.
Horst’s letter to representatives of S3 Biotech basically states the company was not meeting the terms of its purchase and sale agreement with the city.
“The funding commitment letter does not provide the level of assurance we seek, especially considering the many unmet deliverables over the past few years,” Horst said in the letter to S3 Biotech’s Britton Lee, Copper Sky Hotel and Residential Group representative Michael Patterson and Ryan Sullivan with The BR Companies.
This is the second time a deal collapsed between the city and S3 Biotech. The first was in November 2023 when the city the company to “immediately” remove fencing and equipment on the site near Copper Sky for not meeting its agreement obligations with the city.
Shortly thereafter S3 Biotech submitted to the city another preapplication, but both groundwork and construction plans to the city were not completed by a March 30 deadline, under the agreement.
Horst said the city now intends to ask interested developers to step forward and submit bids on the property.
The construction budget for the medical campus was proposed to be upwards of $267 million, with an estimated completion date around June 2025. Hospital construction was proposed at $41.1 million with a medical office building valued at $25.3 million.
