Companies unveil plans for second NLV hospital

Michelle Swafford

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005 | 10:54 a.m.

IASIS Healthcare LLC announced today it has partnered with Meadows Hospital LLC to develop a second hospital in North Las Vegas.

IASIS owns North Vista Hospital and will provide millions of dollars and jointly own and develop about 14.3 acres at the southwest corner of Losee Road and Azure Drive, just south of the Las Vegas Beltway. The partnership has the option to buy an additional six acres of adjacent land.

Meadows investors have intended to build a hospital at the site since 1996, but financing and buyer changes prevented construction, Meadows principal and Alabama real estate agent Fletcher Majors said.

"Everything is moving forward now because we have a partner," he said. "We decided to get somebody that knew how to run a hospital. With IASIS having a hospital nearby that will help."

Other Meadows investors include John McDonald, a California real estate developer; Dr. David Crowe, a local veterinarian; former Lake Mead Hospital Chief Executive Ernie Libman and former Lake Mead Hospital business development director Terry Allen.

They will remain investors in the hospital, but IASIS will likely run the hospital, Majors said.

A medical office building will be built soon and the hospital is in the planning stages so neither a timeline nor a bed count are available, IASIS spokeswoman Tomi Galin, adding that original renderings would be considered.

The original Meadows Hospital project called for a nearby hotel, senior apartments, skilled-nursing and assisted-living centers and community businesses and those plans could still happen, but the project's concept is still being developed, Majors said.

IASIS entered the local hospital market in January 2004 when it purchased Lake Mead Hospital from Tenet Healthcare and changed the name to North Vista in July 2004. In most of its other markets it operates at least two hospitals.