The U Hospital and Clinics, in partnership with Kennecott Land, is expected to break ground this fall for a new health care facility in South Jordan’s Daybreak community, said Rob Lloyd, executive director for U Hospitals and Clinics.
The project will cost $80 million, with $55 million allotted for the actual building and $25 million for hospital equipment, said Gordon Crabtree, U Hospital and Clinic’s chief financial officer. Crabtree said the land and building would be leased at a 3 percent rate starting with a 20-year lease.
The U is looking to expand into a community that has limited health care services available to its residents, Lloyd said.
“A new facility would be a major university health care presence in the community and allow residents to gain access to university health care services closer to their homes,” he said.
The South Jordan area has the highest projected population growth of the state, Lloyd said. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, South Jordan’s population grew by 49.5 percent from 2000 to 2006.
The number of new jobs the new U clinic will create is unknown, but Lloyd said he anticipates a few hundred new jobs will be created.
“It’s a good-size facility8212;approximately 180,000 square feet,” he said.
Jana Kettering, Kennecott Land spokeswoman, said the new clinic represents the path of growth conducive to the Daybreak community. The location, which is approximately 60 acres, will allow for flexibility and future expansion of the facility, Kettering said. The first phase of the project includes a basic care facility, with an emphasis on cardiology. It will eventually have an out-patient surgery and cancer center.
The completion of the health center will connect the clinic and the U Hospital via the TRAX line, an example of transportation-orientated design, Kettering said. The TRAX station is expected to be located directly behind the clinic.
“This won’t just be a stand-alone facility,” Kettering said. “We are integrating it into a community.”
The health facility serving the area now, the South Jordan Health Center, will be closed once the clinic is ready and its physicians and patients will be moved to the new location, Lloyd said.
Lloyd said that patients should not view these changes as closures, but rather as a relocation to a bigger and better facility.
The facility is expected to open in the spring or summer of 2011.