DHR Health, UH break ground on medical research and education center

McALLEN — DHR Health and the University of Houston broke ground on a 64,000-square-foot medical research and education center on Thursday that is expected to create as many as 200 jobs while serving as a regional hub for physicians.

The planned four-story building is described as a state-of-the-art facility that will support a range of clinical training, research, and academic activities.

In addition to classrooms and faculty offices, the center will have space dedicated to simulation-based learning and collaborative research.

DHR says that means the center will provide an “integrated environment” at the intersection of education and research focused on patients.

Renderings show what the facility will ultimately look like: a towering block of large-paned windows, its facade festooned with UH and DHR’s logos.

DHR Health CEO Dr. Manish Singh said there’s a lofty vision behind that building.

The center won’t just bring quality healthcare professionals to the Rio Grande Valley, he said. According to Singh, the center will recruit and retain some of the finest physicians in the nation, staff that will provide Valley residents with healthcare and educational opportunities on par with what can usually only be found in the great capitals of the globe.

Breaking ground on the center, he said, represents something much more significant than a first step toward a new medical facility.

Turning that first shovel full of dirt, Singh said, is a revolutionary declaration that “the Rio Grande Valley will no longer be a place that sends its brightest minds and sickest patients somewhere else.”

“It is time. It is long past time. And it is happening right here,” he said. 

“Right here” happens to be just a little east of the heart of DHR Health’s main campus, just off Dove Avenue in view of where Edinburg, McAllen, and Pharr abut. 

McAllen City Manager Isaac “Ike” Tawil said that location means the economic impact of the new center will directly boost the economies of all three cities and the Valley as a whole.

Tawil said the center is anticipated to directly create between 150 and 200 new jobs.

Indirectly, the center will have a ripple effect that creates many more new jobs.

“Ancillary jobs will come with that,” Tawil said. “Vis-a-vis shopping. Dining out. People buying houses and living here. The total economic impact of a project like this is overall millions of dollars to the Valley. And with the location of DHR being at the intersection of three cities, it really will have a regional impact.”

The center’s impact on workforce development is also expected to be significant.

UH President Renu Khator said it’s difficult to overstate the impact of the center and the partnership between DHR Health and UH’s Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, which was slated to begin sending students to the Valley last month.

“We are the generators of knowledge that will be used to…teach the students of tomorrow,” she said.

The facility is supported in part by a $15 million state appropriation and a $1 million contribution from the city of McAllen.

Singh said funds backing the project represent a revolutionary investment in healthcare for the Rio Grande Valley.

“The state funding that made this project possible reflects a belief,” Singh said. “A belief that people of the Rio Grande Valley deserve the same caliber of research, the same caliber of clinical education, and the same caliber of care as any community in this nation.”

According to DHR Health, there’s not a concrete completion date for the center, though the organization expects construction to move quickly.

Construction on the project, which was designed by Martha L. Hinojosa of FIRM Consultants, will be led by Cantu Construction.