-December 23,2020-
Even while it struggles to manage a record surge in COVID patients, this month the Board of the Directors of Kaweah Delta Hospital have decided to purchase 7 acres at Caldwell and 99, in the proposed Sequoia Gateway project. The purchase price is $3 million.
CEO Gary Herbst says the purchase will allow a relocation of a number of outpatient services from the Downtown Visalia area to the Hwy 99 location in coming years. The site is about 10 miles from Downtown.
Herbst says the strategy behind the purchase includes the long-standing partnership with Valley Children’s Hospital who purchased 6.7 acres for a pediatric clinic at the site but has not moved forward on development since the project was approved 3 years ago.
Parcel map at Sequoia Gateway center. KD is buying several lots in lower left near Hw y99
Beyond the desire to work with Valley Children’s, Herbst says the move allows potential relocation of ambulatory/outpatient services like imaging, outpatient surgery and rehab – services not requiring hospital care – that could make room for expansion of the hospital acute-care space.
“We were able to use money we received from the sale of 80 acres at Lovers Lane and Caldwell to Visalia Unified,” says Herbst. Kaweah Delta retains 20 acres at that location for future use, he adds.
This follows “what have done to expand our reach of services” geographically and “now we can have a site in the southwest”
Herbst explains they have been struggling with how to replace the Mineral King wing hospital beds that do not meet seismic requirements but have faced tough sledding to convince the public to support a tax based bond issue to build a new complex Downtown. They lost a 2016 ballot measure.
“So we are doing what we can with our own money and moving incrementally to build something smaller Downtown.”
Herbst says the hospital has been approached by a developer who is proposing a possible joint-venture to build a 2-story medical building on one of three parcels facing 99 that Kaweah is buying in the Sequoia Gateway project. Besides some ambulatory services, the proposed building could also house physician offices.San Diego-based PMB is a healthcare real estate developer that Kaweah Delta may work with.
Herbst adds that “first and foremost we are an acute-care hospital and our goal is to insure that the Downtown hospital thrives.”
300 employees out
It’s not thriving this moment. Right now the medical center situation is dire-as of December 21- with a record 171 COVID patients -nearly double the largest count earlier this year and an incredible 300 employees out with COVID or isolating because of possible infections.
For developers of the Sequoia Gateway business center, the commitment by Kaweah Delta is good news. The complex gained City of Visalia approval to hook up to the city sewer system that is nearby as of this summer. Work to build the curbs and infrastructure is now going forward. The County approved the project in 2018.
The project has been a controversial one with fears by some in the community that it could steal retail business from Mooney Blvd and encourage sprawl west of the city limits some 4 miles away. Helping to get the project approved by the County in the first place was an announcement by the very popular Valley Children’s that they wanted to open a clinic at the Hwy 99 location on the land owned by Bill Travis and Fred Ruiz.
While the Kaweah Delta development may allow more space in the Downtown campus it will require a 20 mile round-trip from the city center for patients and medical employees.
The Visalia hospital has been looking to bring in more patients from outside the core district in recent years and now has opened a new clinic in Tulare where Adventists Health operates a hospital Tulare calls their own.
The site on Hwy 99 can be viewed as a way to attract more clients from the outskirts to Kaweah Delta with Herbst noting that the busy highway allows good access for those who travel. “We’ve been told that 70,000 cars pass the site every day.”