Hospital project doubles in size with land purchase

The developers planning to build a second hospital in Maricopa have doubled the size of their project after buying four more acres of land at Copper Sky.

City Council on Tuesday night approved the sale of about 4.7 acres at the southeast corner of West Bowlin Road and John Wayne Parkway to Copper Sky Hotel and Residential Group LLC for $1.47 million.

The company shares principals with S3 BioTech LLC, the entity planning to build the city’s second community hospital on four adjoining acres at the same location. It purchased that land from the city in June for $1.38 million.

The specialty ER hospital would be operated by Nutex Health of Houston, Texas. Construction is expected to start by the end of the year.

City Manager Rick Horst said the developers purchased the land for the hospital and came right back to the city to ask to buy the adjoining acreage to expand the project.

A conceptual sketch presented to councilmembers by Horst showed a hotel and condos on the four acres purchased Tuesday night.

As conceived at this time, the hotel would have about 125 beds. A seven-floor luxury condominium building of 10 units per floor would sit atop podium parking, or on-grade parking sheltered under a building elevated on piers.

Condos would likely be sold to the public as well as made available to hospital visitors and doctors coming into town overnight to perform surgery, Horst said.

The development would include a smart parking structure for about 280 cars.

Horst stressed the sketch he showed was conceptual only and that the plan could change in the coming months. He said he was waiting on more details from the developer.

Also Tuesday night, councilmembers heard discussion about the potential sale of 12 acres of city-owned land, also at Copper Sky, to Copper Sky Innovation Group LLC, a company which shares principals with S3 BioTech LLC and Copper Sky Hotel and Residential Group LLC.

The sale price would be $1.46 million.

The company plans to build an Innovation Center along the east side of John Wayne Parkway, between the new La Quinta hotel and Palo Brea.

The project would require moving the city’s three-acre dog park to a different location at Copper Sky.

A conceptual site plan for the Innovation Center campus showed it could include:

• Research labs, co-working space and startup office space of about 100,000 square feet
• Behavioral health and sports psychology facility with about 120 beds
• Academic classroom, fitness center and multipurpose gymnasium building of about 100,000 square feet
• Student/staff housing, auditorium and cafeteria building of about 80,000 square feet
• A 350-unit rent-to-own condo/apartment building with a pool
• A film production studio integrated with a makers shop

Horst again stressed the sketch was conceptual in nature and could change. The developer will provide more information about the plan in the future, he said.