EDINBURG — Solidifying their commitment to bringing a new children’s hospital to the city, DHR Health officials signed a contract with Edinburg for the new location of Driscoll Children’s Hospital freestanding pediatric hospital.
During a meeting on Friday, the Edinburg city council unanimously approved a contract with DHR which is partnering with Driscoll Children’s Hospital for a new, eight-level facility that will be located on the DHR Health campus.
A more than $100 million investment on behalf of DHR and Driscoll, the Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley is expected to bring more than 400 jobs to the city.
“Children deserve the highest level of care,” said Dr. Carlos J. Cardenas, board chairman for DHR Health said during the Edinburg city council meeting, pointing out that the median age for the community was continually dropping.
“With that, we have worked to bring Driscoll Hospital into what will be a $50 million project on our side — or $55 million investment on our side and a $50 million investment on the Driscoll side in terms of total investment all in — to bring a children’s hospital, the Driscoll Children’s Hospital (which) will be the 35th freestanding children’s hospital in the United States, right here to the city of Edinburg,” Cardenas said. “That’s what this project is really about.”
Driscoll first announced their new facility in June during a news conference held in McAllen, a detail that concerned Edinburg Mayor Richard Molina. “If it had gone anywhere else, I know we would have caught a lot of criticism.”
“Even the announcement of the hospital took place in McAllen which made us very, very worried that there was a possibility of this leaving Edinburg,” Molina said.
City Manager Ron Garza detailed the added benefits of having the hospital in the city.
“We did an analysis on the property tax investment. In terms of the valuation, this would bring approximately $1.5 million in additional revenue per year to that,” Garza said.
DHR is already cleared to begin construction and they have three years to build the facility. Once construction is completed and the facility is in operation, the city will pay them $2 million and then $1 million each year after that for a total incentive package of $10 million, according to Garza.
“And again, the approximate valuation increase of revenue for us is about $1.5 million, and that’s just the facility,” Garza said, “we’re not talking about the valuation of the equipment and other homes — we do anticipate, conservatively, 200 to 250/300 homes, new residents, coming into the area for that.”
Garza stressed that the city is not paying anything up front and that DHR and Driscoll would have to fulfill their commitment first.
“They have to construct it independently with no incentive … and they have to operate it,” Garza reiterated. “Once they are operating it with at least 300 jobs, they just certify that … and they would receive their payment. And that payment is under the valuation of the revenue that we’ll get as a city because of that facility being here.”
When Molina asked for his recommendation, Garza told the mayor that from a risk standpoint, the project was a good investment given the hundreds of new jobs and the new homes that those employees are anticipated to spur.
“That’s not even touching the fact that we would have this resource available to this community to use,” Garza said.
