Historic Manning House to become El Rio Community Health Center Offices for $3.05 mm
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El Rio Community Health Center’s Board of Directors has confirmed the purchase of the historic Manning House downtown, which will house El Rio’s administrative offices in 2015 when 175 current staff members will relocate from the 3480 E Briannia Dr Building at Palo Verde and Valencia at lease termination.
El Rio Community Health Center is the largest provider of medical and dental services to uninsured and Medicaid populations in Pima County. With 17 sites in Tucson, El Rio serves the medical and dental needs of more than 79,000 patients annually. El Rio employs over 800 people with an annual budget of over $90 million dollars. A national model of health care excellence, El Rio’s mission is to “improve the health of our community through comprehensive, accessible, affordable, quality and compassionate care.”
Kathy Byrne, Executive Director of El Rio said, “The health center board of directors is committed to being part of the re-vitalization of downtown, the preservation of an important historic building, and cost effectiveness and efficiency in health center operations.” After a full due diligence process that took several months, the board made the decision to purchase the 34,860 sq. ft. Manning House and adjoining excess land totaling 4.5 acres at 450 W Paseo Redondo in Tucson for[mepr-show rules=”58038″]$3.05 million ($87 PSF) from two Tucson entities (Colleen Concannon, principal). The property was scheduled to be sold in a Trustee Sale on May 29th by the Scottsdale law firm of Kutak Rock on behalf of City National Bank of Los Angeles, but the lender cancelled the foreclosure auction to work with El Rio Health Center.
Richard Spaulding, El Rio’s Facilities Director said, “Plans are to renovate the historic Manning House while construction of El Rio’s new 54,000 sq. ft., two-story building, west of the freeway on West Congress is being worked on; that breaks ground in the next two weeks.” The new building will be directly in front of the current El Rio Gomez building at 839 W Congress where there is parking, and will continue to function until the new facility is able to receive patients, according to Spaulding. Only when the new building is ready, sometime in 2014, and all staff moved into the new building will the Gomez building be razed.
Planning for this new structure has been in the works since 2008, when it became obvious to the El Rio Board that the current health center’s Robert Gomez building was not going to be adequate much longer. That same year they applied for a grant that was unfortunately denied. However, in May 2012, El Rio did receive two federal grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, under the Affordable Health Care Act, totaling $5.49 million, to help jump start the new Gomez building on Congress and take care of some smaller renovations at the El Rio Pediatrics building at Midvale and Valencia. El Rio reports the new construction cost for the Congress project to be about $14 million.
Placing the administrative offices nearby at the Manning House and in the center of the other 16 operating El Rio sites makes good business sense since many of the employees, from information technology, security, call center, accounting, Pima Community Access Program and senior leadership now located at the Britannia Building near the airport, frequently need to visit other El Rio locations and community partners in town.
The Manning House was designed by architect Henry Trost and built in 1907 for prominent business man and Tucson Mayor from 1905 to 1907, Levi Manning. The Manning family moved out in 1949 and it became an Elks Club Lodge that added 20,000 sq. ft. sq. ft. to the building and converted the atrium into a ballroom. It later became office space and for the past 17 years before closing last July, has been a meetings and events venue. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
James Hardman of DESCO Southwest in Tucson represented the buyer and Ian Stuart Vice-President and Jerry Hawkins 1st Vice-President, Investment Properties of CBRE in Tucson represented the seller in the transaction.
Hardman can be reached at (520) 297-8929. Hawkins should be contacted at (520) 323-5109 and Stuart is at (520) 323-5180.[/mepr-show]
