Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
A project proposed last year for the former Shawano Medical Center before being vetoed by ThedaCare might go forward at a new location.
The Common Council next week will consider a development agreement for a 25-bed residency training hospital and medical clinic, along with eight 12-unit residential apartment buildings, that would be located north of County Road B and east of Waukechon Street in Shawano.
The apartments would be a mix of multi-family housing and senior assisted living facilities.
The 39-acre complex, located in Tax Incremental Finance district 7, would be just south of the new Belmark packaging development.
A plan to turn the former SMC property into a residency training hospital was approved by city officials last year, but fell through after ThedaCare, which owns a portion of the property, refused to sign on.
ThedaCare objected over concerns that the training center would compete with ThedaCare Medical Center-Shawano.
The residency training center proposed last year would have catered to medical school graduates, potentially from across the country, who need additional training in residency to qualify for licensing.
Developers have been looking for an alternate location since the former hospital site fell through in August 2015.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said the development would be a positive thing for Shawano.
“It’s a very large development for us,” he said. “It has the potential to be the most impactful development in the city of Shawano.”
Knapp said the training center could also address the problem of a lack of health care providers in the area by drawing them to the city for their training.
“One of our main concerns is attracting health care providers to Shawano,” he said. “What better way of doing that?”
The Common Council will take the matter up on Thursday, a day later than the usual time due to next week’s elections.
The proposed development agreement between the city and RTC Real Estate Holdings LLC was recommended Wednesday by the plan commission and Shawano Industrial and Commercial Development Committee.
RTC expects to make a roughly $63 million investment in the project, according to the agreement.
The $780,000 cost of the property would be offset by credits RTC would receive if it meets all of its obligations under the agreement, basically providing the property to RTC at no cost.
The agreement calls for RTC to construct a 45,000-square-foot medical clinic in three phases, with the first phase completed by January 2018.
The residency training hospital would be up by January 2020.
Four 12-unit apartment buildings would go up in 2019 and 2020, with 48 units of additional apartments and/or senior assisted-living beds by January 2023.
The last phase of the medical clinic would be completed by January 2026.
The residency training hospital portion of the project would be tax-exempt, but RTC would make an annual payment to the city in lieu of taxes starting 10 years after the project’s completion.
The city would also issue a municipal revenue bond of $2.5 million on RTC’s behalf once the early phases of the project are completed.
The 22-acre hospital portion of the project is expected to increase the value of the property by $38 million and create 210 full-time jobs, according to the agreement.
Improvements to the 9-acre housing and senior care portion should add $8.5 million to the taxable land value and create 25 full-time jobs.
The clinic and professional building portion is expected to add $7.5 million in taxable valuation improvements and create 50 full-time jobs.
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“The integrated approach of this development will reduce the physician shortage we are facing both statewide and nationally, and will create substantial economic growth locally and regionally,” RTC states in an attachment to the agreement. “Increased job creation will drive an environment of growth in the local economy and the expansion of health care services will provide for an overall healthier community and improve the quality of life for the surrounding population.”
RTC writes that the mission of the Residency Training Center of Wisconsin “is to create significant new medical residency slots in rural Wisconsin. In order to achieve the goals of the RTCW, it is necessary that a campus of comprehensive and diverse medical activities be created.”
The residency training center will not be the provider of direct medical services to patients, according to RTC.
RTC “will work with existing health care providers and will create, through ‘affiliated partnerships,’ more opportunities for medical services to increase residency placement opportunities,” RTC states in the agreement.