Hospice Care

 In Phoenix, the nation’s fifth  largest city, a unique hub for healthcare and bioscience industries is  rising in a revitalized part of the community. 

Phoenix’s healthcare hub is  becoming increasingly critical as a result of the pandemic, but a boom  was already underway in midtown Phoenix, making healthcare and  bioscience among the fastest-growing industries in the greater Phoenix  marketplace.   

This hub deserves a closer look because it is an ideal ecosystem for healthcare innovation. 

“This is the highest density of bioscience  healthcare workforce in Arizona, and sits among the West’s leaders,”  said Christine Mackay, director, Phoenix Community and Economic Development. “Quality, experienced workforce is one of the first reasons life and bio-science companies are selecting Phoenix.” 

The area is home to Creighton University’s  new $100 million Health Sciences Campus, which is currently under  construction. At the core geography is a major health system — Dignity  Health’s headquarters on site at the iconic redeveloped former outdoor  mall and now multi-use hub, Park Central. Next door is the prestigious  St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, and 800 yards away is Banner  Health System’s headquarters. 

Just two miles to the south of  this core lies the 30-acre Phoenix Biomedical Campus, where all three  major Arizona public universities — Arizona State University, University  of Arizona and Northern Arizona University — along with the Dignity  Health Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, the  Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) an affiliate of City  of Hope and Exact Sciences are a few of its tenants.

Add to this the business-friendly climate in Arizona, and the result is that projects such as Park Central are actually adding office  tenants in the pandemic instead of losing them. The project is seeing  tremendous activity from health-related tenants seeking a place in this  magnet of innovation.

Some of the numbers are staggering, as Arizona is ramping up its overall healthcare infrastructure.

• Construction  is underway or about to begin inside the city of Phoenix for bioscience  healthcare facilities with a capital value of more than $3 billion,  according to the data compiled by Phoenix Community and Economic  Development

• More than 4.5 million square feet of new Phoenix bioscience healthcare facilities are under development.

• More than 7,000 new bioscience healthcare jobs will be created in Phoenix during this time.

• Midtown  Phoenix has 10 major healthcare and education centers, including a  university, two large hospital campuses and several new bioscience  centers.

• Venture capital funding in greater Phoenix for bioscience healthcare is growing at one of the fastest rates in the country.

• And as a result, construction of supporting residential, lodging and retail uses are booming in the area

• In November  2020, there are more than 20 cranes on the Downtown Phoenix skyline,  more than any other time in its history. Rider Levett Bucknall’s “Crane  Count” placed Phoenix fourth in the U.S. and one of only five cities  with an uptick in mid- and high-rise development in the third quarter  2020 compared to a year earlier

All of this growth and  innovation in healthcare, bioscience and medical devices has created a  critical mass for Phoenix that is cementing its place as a healthcare  destination for institutions, healthcare professionals, patients and all  business that support them. 

“The healthcare and bioscience  industries are really pacing economic growth in Arizona,” said Chris  Camacho, President & CEO of GPEC. “Not only are they creating jobs  and investment, the overall quality of the healthcare provided in  Arizona is world-renowned and is an economic development tool in itself.  Healthcare is making our entire state a more desirable place to live  and work.” 

One of the busiest locations for  healthcare construction centers around Park Central in midtown, where  several key initiatives are taking place. Along with the new Creighton  University Health Sciences Campus, which is scheduled to open in 2021,  it is home to a new facility for West Coast Ultrasound Institute and the  new WearTech medical device lab. Park Central is already home to  Dignity Health’s regional headquarters and is adjacent to the St.  Joseph’s Hospital complex — where a new tower is being built for Barrow  Neurological Institute.