New hospital campus near Copper Sky park given rezoning to move forward

City Council this week unanimously approved rezoning land surrounding Copper Sky Regional Park for two proposed campuses – one for a hospital and one for innovation – totaling 1.6 million square feet anad 26.3 acres of developed land.

As InMaricopa has previously reported the campuses, which would consist of two phases, would be near the southeastern corner of North John Wayne Parkway and West Bowlin Road.

The medical campus, which would include the hospital, medical office space, apartments, condominiums, hotel and sports academy, would be approximately 559,000 square feet on 14.3 acres near the southeastern corner of North John Wayne Parkway and West Bowlin Road.

The innovation campus would be at the northeastern corner of North John Wayne Parkway and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It would cover 12 acres and have more than 1 million square feet of building space.

The council this week moved the project forward by rezoning the land from general mixed use and transitional to planned area development.

If completed as envisioned, the campus would be home to the tallest buildings in the city, including a high-end hotel and a condominium building/extended stay hotel, each proposed for seven stories at 100 feet.

According to Rudy Lopez, Maricopa development services director, the area development plan zoning sets parameters to ensure the development provides exceptional standards and creativity for the community, including:

• Setbacks.
• Restricted permitted use table.
• Parking ratio standards.
• Conceptual land-use plan.
• Conceptual open-space and connectivity plan.
• Conceptual circulation plan.
• Architectural design guidelines.

Nathan Steele, Maricopa director of economic development and legislative affairs, said the project could have more of an impact on the city’s economic development than a hospital-only project.

“This project is expected to contribute to Maricopa’s economy in a variety of ways, not only creating construction jobs, but health-care jobs once the construction is complete,” Steele said. “Then, there are the ancillary jobs and development that follow, from restaurants, to hotels or anything else that serves the area. We celebrate this project and all others that are progressing.”

Plans call for 13 buildings on the two campuses, including two smart-parking structures. Johnson estimated completion of the full project would take four to five years.

The proposed development would have related site improvements for parking, vehicular and pedestrian circulation and helicopter medical-transport services.

According to Ed Johnson, an S3 BioTech board member, the campus would create as many as 11,500 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent medical-industry jobs. The 30-year tax benefit of the project to the city is estimated at $4.5 billion.

The city’s second hospital, which will be operated by Houston-based Nutex Health, is being developed by S3 BioTech as a specialty ER hospital of at least 100,000 square feet and 25 beds. The project would include medical-service facilities, ambulatory surgery center, catheterization lab and office space to house physician practices and other medical services.

Johnson said he hopes the hospital could be operational by late 2023.

Nutex Health was founded in 2011 and has micro-hospitals in Chandler and Tucson. It operates primarily in its home state of Texas, where it has 15 of its 24 hospitals. It also has facilities in Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma, with four more in development.

Watch the full presentation here. http://cityofmaricopa.granicus.com/player/clip/1153?&redirect=true&h=833d296bf604fe967ed21e0e8e556373