TMC HealthCare is asking the city for a tax incentive for a new medical office project on Tucson’s southeast side.
TMC’s plans call for an $11 million project to be called the TMC Rincon Health Campus at Civano.
It would be a 44,000-square-foot, two-story building at the southeast corner of South Houghton and East Drexel roads. Patients could visit a primary-care clinic, a pediatric clinic, a wound-care center and specialists.
Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year, with the second floor built as a shell space for future development. The campus could open in September 2016, said TMC Vice President Richard Prevallet.
TMC has applied for the city’s Primary Jobs incentive program.
If approved by the Tucson City Council, the program would let TMC apply its city construction sales tax against city impact fees. The council is expected to take up the issue at its Sept. 24 meeting.
The project would bring about $12,000 a year in rental-tax revenue to the city, according to TMC’s application for the incentive program.
The program is intended to help the city grow new, high-paying jobs.
The project would create at least 60 new jobs to begin with, growing more as the building is fully occupied, according to TMC’s application.
TMC bought 40 acres of land 10 years ago and planned to build a satellite hospital there, but the company turned its investments back to the main campus, and then the recession hit.
Since then, the company has spent about $4.5 million on rebuilding, widening and landscaping Drexel Road and relocating utilities to make the site ready for development, Prevallet said. Those expenditures were part of an earlier agreement with the city.
The site is a good one because of the growing population on the southeast side and the need for a medical center there, he said.
“It’s a wonderful new development that’s happening,” said Council Member Shirley Scott. “We do need these kinds of facilities, and I’m thrilled that they’re there.”
TMC is a nonprofit community hospital that employs more than 3,000 people and ranks 15th among Tucson’s largest employers.
Businesses that previously qualified for Primary Jobs incentives are American Tire Distributors, B/E Aerospace, Comcast and HomeGoods.
