Work begins on a ‘super clinic’ for veterans in southeast Valley

Officials recently celebrated the ceremonial groundbreaking for a Veterans Affairs “super clinic” expected to serve nearly 20,000 veterans in the southeast Valley when it opens in spring 2014.

The two-story, 60,000square-foot medical center will replace an aging clinic near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and bring expanded services to veterans living in areas from Ahwatukee Foothills to Queen Creek, officials said.

Sharon Helman, director of the Phoenix VA health-care system, called the planned clinic the “gem” of the federal department’s Network 18, an area that covers Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.

Services at the new medical center will include primary care, mental health, audiology, recreational therapy, dental care and disease prevention, Helman said.

“We are going to triple the size of our current existing clinic,” Helman said. “We’ll have more room to provide more services for our nation’s heroes.”

Located on a 10-acre parcel at the southeastern corner of Val Vista Drive and Pecos Road, the clinic is surrounded by other service centers, including Mercy Gilbert Medical Center and SanTan Village mall.

Illinois-based McShane Development Co. is building the clinic. Town officials expect the project to create 100 jobs over the next five years, with an average annual wage of $60,000, according to a town staff memo. McShane expects construction to create about 423 jobs, and the development is projected to have a direct economic impact of about $406,000 over 10 years, according to the memo.

Town Manager Patrick Banger said the clinic is another “valuable asset” in the town’s growing biomedical sector, which includes the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center and Celebration Stem Cell Centre.

“It’s another high-wage employer, and we worked with McShane to try to compress the site and create more density to bring more employment down here,” Banger said.

Veterans Affairs operates several community-based outpatient clinics in Arizona, including locations in Buckeye, Anthem and Casa Grande, to supplement the department's hospitals in Phoenix, Tucson and Prescott.

As the federal government began searching for a new location in the southeast Valley, a short list of six emerged, including sites near Banner Gateway Medical Center, Gilbert Hospital and SanTan Village mall.

The Gilbert Town Council last year agreed to pay up to $140,000 for infrastructure improvements including a bus stop, waterline and street-access point for the clinic. Townfunded improvements include the relocation of existing streetlights and sidewalks, demolition and paving for a bus turnout, construction of about 1,300 feet of waterlines and installation of four fire hydrants, according to a town report.

Town officials will tap into Gilbert’s $5 million economicdevelopment reserve fund to pay for the improvements, according to the report.