El Rio's new building rises downtown

A Mondell pine tree stood on top of a nearly complete three-story building in downtown Tucson on Thursday morning.

The tree is a gesture from Scandinavian tradition that symbolizes the near completion of a construction project. During a “topping off” ceremony Thursday, El Rio Community Health Center used it to mark the final stages of its new 37,500-square-foot office building tucked away on Paseo Redondo next to the historic Manning House.

The building is expected to open early next year and will house information technology, patient communications, a diagnostic laboratory and an employee wellness center. All told, about 250 employees will work at the site.

The building, which has not been named yet and is referred to as “Manning 2,” will play a key role in revitalizing downtown, as well as helping El Rio provide quality, low-cost health care to Tucson residents, said El Rio CEO Nancy Johnson.

El Rio invested $4.4  million to construct the building, said El Rio Chief Financial Officer Celia Hightower. In 2013, El Rio bought the grounds on Paseo Redondo for $3 million and spent $2 million to renovate the Manning House.

“The services and clinics you have in our community are absolutely necessary,” Tucson City Councilwoman Regina Romero said. Since El Rio began 45 years ago, she said, it has not deviated from its mission “to serve the people that need it the most.”

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City Councilman Richard Fimbres called the new building “another piece to the puzzle of the revitalization of downtown.”

During the project’s planning stages, the concept for the second building grew from a garage, to a two-story building, to a three-story building, said Frank Mascia, owner of Tucson-based CDG Architects. In the end, the designers decided on the current version and modeled it after the Manning House, built in 1907.

“We realized we could knit that together with the new building around this courtyard and create a new mall,” Mascia said, adding the courtyard could become “the heart of El Rio.”

During the yearlong construction, about 65 construction personnel and 30 office staff worked at the site, said Ken Sand, project manager for Tucson-based BFL Construction.

“That doesn’t even go into talking about the supply chain here in Tucson that’s actually gaining employment through this project,” he said.

El Rio operates 17 sites in Tucson, where 1,050 employees serve 85,000 people each year. El Rio is the largest provider in Pima County of health care to uninsured patients and those who depend on Medicaid, the organization said in a news release.