Hospital chain to break ground on project near Raiders HQ

The west Henderson area has seen a surge of construction in recent years, with developers putting up housing tracts, apartments, warehouses and the Raiders’ headquarters.

Now another big project is set to take shape: a new hospital.

Valley Health System is scheduled to hold a ceremonial groundbreaking March 23 for West Henderson Hospital, a 150-bed facility at the corner of St. Rose Parkway and Raiders Way.

It is expected to open in mid-2024, according to a news release.

The $385 million, 40-acre medical campus near the M Resort at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley will initially include an emergency department, surgical and endoscopy suites, cardiac catheterization labs, an electrophysiology lab to treat heart rhythm disorders, and other treatment areas, the release said.

The hospital building will consist of attached five- and seven-story towers and span around 400,000 square feet, said Bret Loughridge, president of SR Construction, the project’s general contractor.

He noted that two floors will be empty for future use.

“West Henderson is experiencing explosive growth, from residential to retail to business and industrial sectors,” Chris Loftus, incoming CEO of West Henderson Hospital, said in a news release, adding he lives in Henderson and wants to “elevate” health care services in the area.

Loftus, current CEO of Valley Health’s Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, told the Review-Journal that he wasn’t concerned about opening a hospital just a few miles from another one — Dignity Health’s St. Rose Dominican Hospital-Siena campus, at the corner of St. Rose Parkway and Eastern Avenue.

He said St. Rose Dominican and Valley Health’s Henderson Hospital, about 12 miles from the project site, are both “extremely busy.”

The new facility was not sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, Valley Health spokeswoman Gretchen Papez said.

Plans for West Henderson Hospital have been in the works for some time and predate the public health crisis, Loftus added.

Pennsylvania-based health care giant Universal Health Services, which owns Valley Health System, acquired the property for $36.5 million in September 2020, a month after the Henderson City Council approved project plans, records show.

UHS, a publicly traded company, booked $987.6 million in profit last year, a securities filing shows.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.