Phoenix-based Banner Health is laying the groundwork for a substantial addition to the Scottsdale medical landscape. The healthcare giant's application to develop a new three-story medical office building, dubbed Banner Health Center Plus, is now pending approval from city officials. The project, encompassing 119,500 square feet on nearly 15 acres at the nexus of Loop 101 and Hayden Road, is the first step towards establishing a $400 million hospital complex sprawled over 48 acres, as reported by ABC15 News.
Intended to significantly boost local healthcare provision, Banner Health Center Plus will house a comprehensive M.D. Anderson oncology program, clinics for Banner University Medical Group, urgent care facilities, a family pharmacy, an ambulatory surgery center among other services. Banner's application details anticipate the Banner University Medical Group clinics to fully occupy the building's second floor. However, an official date for the project's review by Scottsdale's development review board has not been finalized; the city is expected to offer preliminary feedback on the plans before they are formally presented to the board, spokesperson David Leibowitz told Phoenix Business Journal.
With zoning for the site in place, approval by the development review board would allow Banner to proceed with the construction of the medical office. Leibowitz stated that the tentative goal is to have the medical office operational by the end of 2025, and the facility is estimated to employ about 220 people upon opening. The larger medical campus, when fully developed, is expected to provide jobs to some 2,500 workers.
In addition to the medical office building, future development plans include a four-story hospital and cancer center slated to open in 2026. This ambitious project collaboratively brings together SmithGroup for design and Dibble Engineering for civil engineering services, with Susan Demmitt of Gammage & Burnham PLC providing land-use counsel for the application process. The Banner Health Center Plus is part of a broader push by Banner in the Valley, where they recently opened other "Plus" centers, reflecting a strategic expansion of their healthcare footprint across the region, ABC15 News reported.
The locale chosen by Banner for its impressive Scottsdale campus is amid numerous high-profile developments, such as the Cavasson mixed-use campus and the anticipated Axon Enterprise Inc.'s office headquarters complex. However, Axon's project is momentarily on hold after the Scottsdale Planning Commission granted a continuance at a February meeting. A few miles east, Mayo Clinic is concluding a massive $748 million expansion of its Phoenix campus, further highlighting the area's rise as a burgeoning medical hub in the Southwest.
