Medical projects proposed in Las Vegas’ Symphony Park and Enterprise Park

By Dave Toplikar

Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | 4:50 p.m.

Two proposals aimed at improving Las Vegas’ medical care with facilities on city-owned property won approval Wednesday from the Las Vegas City Council.

On a unanimous vote, the council approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with a California developer for a six-story medical building in Symphony Park to bring a skilled nursing facility to the downtown area.

The council also decided to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with a South Dakota nonprofit corporation to bring a pediatric care facility to the city’s Enterprise Park at Mount Mariah Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Both projects, which were pushed by Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Barlow, give developers the exclusive ability over roughly the next six months to look at the feasibility of the proposed projects.

“There are gaps in our medical industry that need to be filled,” Barlow said.

Centralized pediatric care

Barlow said pediatric medical care in Ward 5 is “deplorable” and that there are 10,000 young people in that area who are underserved and have no health insurance.

Officials with Sanford World Clinics, a Sioux Falls, S.D., nonprofit, propose building a 13,000-square-foot pediatric acute-care clinic on 2.15 acres in Enterprise Park. The company said it could expand the facility to 18,000 square feet.

Sanford says its development would create eight jobs for pediatric physicians and 16 to 24 administrative and support staff positions.

The city will receive a $10,000 deposit for the Enterprise Park project that would go toward a future purchase price or would be refundable if Sanford meets its terms of the agreement but doesn’t move forward.

Representatives of University Medical Center and the Nevada Health Center expressed concern about the location of the facility and competing with Sanford.

Barlow, however, told Sanford it would need to work with UMC and the Nevada Health Center as part of the conditions for approval. He said UMC and Nevada Health Center officials can meet with Sanford to lay out their concerns.

“We’re on a date right now,” Barlow said. “We have six months to decide if this will be a love affair or if we part our ways.”

Skilled nursing center

The council also entered into an agreement that lasts until Dec. 19 to give CITRA Real Estate Capital, LLC, an exclusive negotiating agreement to determine the feasibility of developing a skilled nursing center on Parcel L at Symphony Park, just east of the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

The project would consist of a 160-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center, 100 units for senior housing/independent living, 50,000 square feet of medical office and retail space, and a parking garage.

Michael Saltzman, CITRA’s managing director, said the company, based in Marina Del Rey, Calif., is already working on a similar facility in the Henderson area, near Horizon Ridge and St. Rose parkways.

Councilman Bob Coffin said he wanted to make sure that whatever is built doesn't detract from the beauty of the Smith Center.

Coffin said he didn’t want to see a bulky, institutional medical facility built next to the Smith Center’s carillon bell tower.

Saltzman said the Symphony Park master plan has restrictions on what can be built and developers envision a six-story structure, which would be smaller than what was originally envisioned for development next to the Smith Center.

Saltzman also said the use of the building and the building’s external structure would “respond to local conditions” and wouldn’t be a mirror of the facility in Henderson.

For example, he said, because of its proximity to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, there might be a wing dedicated in the Symphony Park facility to memory care.