West Valley health care sector is booming

By Lindsay Walker
Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

The West Valley is open for business and health care is in especially high demand.

Experts from Avondale, Buckeye and real estate investment firms came together to discuss the region’s booming health care industry at a webinar hosted by Westmarc on Tuesday, April 20.

Sintra Hoffman, the West Valley business and community coalition’s president and CEO said the region is home to a growing health care corridor along Interstate 10 and McDowell Road that runs through Avondale, Buckeye and Goodyear. Nearly 36% of health care employees call the West Valley home, she said.

Ms. Hoffman also noted the demographics of the area’s residents are changing significantly, with the median age now down to 35 — younger than that of college town Tempe. Approximately 31% of pediatric growth during the next few years is expected to take place in Southwest Phoenix.

“We’re seeing more pediatrics in the West Valley,” she said. “It shows how the region’s demographics have gotten a whole lot younger.”

As a result, Phoenix Children’s Hospital is spending $33 million to expand its footprint in Avondale. The city’s new mixed-use development The BLVD also will host a slew of medical offices, which the Avondale City Council championed.

“We can’t ask others to invest in us if we don’t invest in ourselves,” said Cheryl Covert, Avondale’s assistant director of economic development.
The city began investing in the health care corridor nine years ago, bookended by Banner Estrella Medical Center in the east and Abrazo Medical Group in the west. As the city continues to boom, lots of space is available for leasing.

Trevor Stokes, CEO of The Partnership for Workforce Innovation, said the health care sector has overtaken the government as the largest employer in Maricopa County, one of the fastest-growing counties in the U.S. The industry contributed more than $23 billion in earnings to the county last year alone, he said, and thousands of those employees live and work in the West Valley.

“When looking at opportunities to grow, we’re not limited to the talent pool in Avondale,” said Mr. Stokes. “It’s robust, diverse and stretches across the West Valley.”

With Maricopa County employment levels projected to increase more than 51% by 2028, demand for registered nurses and medical technicians will continue to grow, as will jobs in fields like biotech.

According to Mr. Stokes, an investment in health care is a broader investment in the local economy. He said data from two ZIP codes in Avondale found dollars spent by health care workers in the area were spent at other businesses in the same ZIP code.

“The industry is not just bringing value to the economy by producing jobs, it’s also contributing to the broad supply chain,” he said. “The infrastructure is in place to support sector growth. The talent development ecosystem across the area is designed to support the sector. It’s fully aligned to current and projected needs.”

Like Avondale, neighboring Buckeye is expanding and setting records — even during a global pandemic. In 2020, the city issued a record 3,343 single-family residence permits, a 26% increase from the year prior. That equates to a population increase of approximately 10,000 residents in need of more medical facilities.

“The area is underserved in medical for its size,” said Suzie Boyles, economic development manager for the city of Buckeye. “We need to fill the gap in the city and meet the needs of new residents.”

Alexandra Loye, a senior vice president with Colliers International, is handling several medical space projects in Avondale. She said her team also explored sites in Goodyear and Buckeye, recognizing the area’s growth before settling on Avondale.

“The area hadn’t seen a multi-tenant medical office building since 2014,” she said.

A new development is currently under contract at 1830 N. Bullard Ave. in a coveted location right off I-10.

Ms. Loye’s colleague Philip Wurth, an executive vice president with Colliers International, said the site will break ground this spring and is being targeted “by groups in town looking to expand or out-of-towners looking to plant a flag in Arizona.”

Mr. Wurth said there was no existing office in the area that would fit the needs of a medical practice or surgery outpatient center in need of a large space, which is hard to accommodate in a garden-variety office space.

Moving forward, health care companies will need to be creative.

“We will continue to see creative repurposing of existing facilities and the creativity of new spaces,” he said.

With lots being gobbled up along the I-10, the competition is fierce for companies to establish a West Valley presence. As Ms. Loye put it, “the Southwest Valley is on fire.”