Diagnosis For Downtown Phoenix Growth

It's a vision, not a blueprint. Downtown Phoenix.

An opportunity, not a regulatory obstacle course.

It's the proposed Phoenix Biomedical District, a 120-acre parcel in downtown Phoenix targeting health care and bioresearch facilities.

An area large enough to accommodate medical offices, diagnostic centers, surgical offices, schools, clinics and the natural growth and expansion of the current biomedical campus. Plus, the parking, residential retail and commercial infrastructure to handle all that growth.

It's Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's idea. And it stems from the controversy over what hospital should affiliate with the fledgling University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix.

The city already has the Phoenix biomedical campus, a narrow strip, mostly between Seventh and Fifth streets, Monroe to Garfield. The area already houses the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a fledgling branch of the UA College of Medicine, and the Arizona Biomedical Collaboration, a joint research venture of the three state universities.

But a string of suitors is already lining up for remaining vacant land.

The problem: In total, they would wrap around the 28-acre campus several times over. Consider:

• Banner Health and UA are negotiating details over a site for a teaching hospital and a cancer research center.

• Phoenix Union High School District is building a bioscience high school between Fifth and Sixth streets, Pierce and McKinley, incorporating the historic McKinley Elementary School. Some 400 students will attend, beginning in August. With parking, it will take up an entire city block.

• The three state universities hope to build at least two more ABC research centers. And the UA medical school, pharmacy college and allied health services are seeking an additional classroom building. And a nursing high school is in the planning stage.

• Even if the Maricopa County Health District Board cannot reach an agreement with UA, it still wants a place within walking distance of the UA medical school. The board and Maricopa Integrated Health System administrators are looking at options right now.

In short, there's not enough room on the biocampus. Consultants are advising Phoenix to follow health district models in Cambridge, Mass., and at the University of San Francisco, in particular. A group of city officials and others plan to visit Houston's sprawling Texas Medical Center in late April.

Gordon's response is for people to heed Horace Greeley's classic advice: Go West.

To a corridor of opportunity, between Fillmore and Van Buren from Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue, especially west of Central Avenue, 120 acres of strategically located - but currently underutilized - parcels, including vast swaths of vacant land up and down Second, Third and Fourth avenues.

Gordon and the city manager's staff can list any number of prospects that have approached the city on possible sites.

Gordon's biomedical "district" does not envision broad-based incentives or tax subsidies. It would not block other developments like the planned ASU School of Journalism and student residential facility. It would not condemn the law offices and consultants that have sprouted up within the area.

What it would do is send a promising message to the robust and expanding health care industry: We want to work with you.

Looking for a home in downtown Phoenix is easy.