The new medical examiner facility will be 34,000 square feet, doubling the size of the current facility.

 Courtesy of Pima County

Thursday marked the start of construction on the new Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner facility, which will be designed to meet the growing needs in Southern Arizona.

The $45-million facility, located at the southwest corner of Milber Street and Country Club Road, south of East Ajo Way, will be 34,000 square feet, doubling the size of the current facility. In addition to Pima County, the new facility will also handle cases from Cochise, La Paz and Santa Cruz counties.

“It’s been a long time coming,” county Administrator Jan Lesher said at the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday.

The idea for a new building came sometime in 2011, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Gregory Hess said. Throughout the years, Hess said the size of the medical examiner’s staff hasn’t changed much because there wasn’t any space to do so.

“We would have to make a cubicle in the parking lot essentially,” Hess said.

Dr. Gregory Hess, Chief Medical Examiner, with staged earthmovers behind him during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Pima County Office of Medical Examiner on Country Club Road, south of Ajo Way, on Thursday.

In addition, the number of deaths reported to the OME, the number of postmortem examinations and the number of deaths the office has to certify has increased over time, Hess said. Pima County has also become the repository for the remains of migrants who die in the desert while crossing into the United States, due to the county’s proximity to the border.

“We knew they were going to increase, and we really needed a facility that would allow us to handle that volume,” Hess said.

The new facility will feature two zones. One area will support administrative functions with offices and meeting rooms while the autopsy area will include six stations with an observation gallery, an aseptic room, anthropology, imaging and unidentified remains storage.

The building will also have a new cold storage that can hold up to 300 bodies. Right now, the office can handle 200 bodies when using outside storage trucks.

The postmortem exam rooms will also expand from two to five in the new facility.

A courtyard will be between the two areas, which will feature public art that honors the personal experiences of the public and the significance of the services the office provides.

The new Pima County Office of Medical Examiner facility is expected to open in Fall 2024.

As for Hess, he is excited for a new morgue area, saying the office is “really constrained” in the one it has now.

“The number of postmortem exams that we can do at the same time are very constrained and things are falling apart a little bit,” Hess said.

The new facility is expected to open in fall 2024, with the construction timeline being 12 to 18 months.

Kitchell is overseeing the project construction, with design services provided by SmithGroup.

Dozens of new murals by local artists have been unveiled since the start of 2022. Here are some you may have noticed recently:

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Jamie Donnelly covers breaking news for the Arizona Daily Star. Contact her via e-mail at jdonnelly@tucson.com