San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX

Local News

May 4, 2007

Seton system smiles on Kyle

Massive hospital complex planned

By Brad Rollins

Kyle — Leaders in San Marcos’ rapidly growing neighbor to the north hope Seton Family of Hospital’s plans for a regional hospital and medical office center will help position their city as a commercial — and medical — hub of the Interstate 35 corridor.

Under a preliminary agreement signed on Thursday, Seton would open a 110-bed hospital by 2010 and expand to 210 beds by 2020.

Planned for 205 acres at Interstate 35 and a planned eastern extension of the Kyle Parkway, the development will include two medical office towers and 900,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. Fully built out, officials said, the project will cost about $438 million.

The development is estimated to create 2,300 non-medical and 2,300 medical jobs, about 75 percent of which would have an annual median salary of more than $50,000. Local governments would also see a windfall of property tax on the commercial property, which would by itself increase Kyle’s property tax base by about 40 percent. The non-profit hospital is tax exempt under federal law.

But the real boon might be for Kyle’s image, which officials have tried to expand beyond its perception as a bedroom community. The massive project puts Kyle on the map as the center of the Hays County portion of the Interstate 35 corridor, officials said.

“Many of the benefits of this can’t be reflected on a balance sheet. It’s more than dollars and cents,” said Kyle City Manager Tom Mattis. “...What they can do for us is basically unlimited.”

As part of the deal, the city and county will rebate part of the sales tax they collect from the retail end of the property for 15 years and the city will invest millions in infrastructure. The deal still must be approved by St. Louis-based Ascension Health, Seton’s parent organization.

Retail uses, including big box stores, will be developed by Austin-based SCC Development Co.

Hospital officials chose Kyle because it is centrally located for the Hays County segment of the Interstate 35 corridor, which hospital officials consider its own medical market independent of Austin. They looked at San Marcos but were inclined toward Kyle almost from the start, said David Gallagher, Seton’s senior vice president for business development.

“We evaluated at lot of possible locations but in the end, geographically, it just made sense for us to build it” in Kyle, Gallagher said.

Seton officials met with Mayor Susan Narvaiz some time ago, the mayor said, and discussions are ongoing with St. David’s Healthcare System, which she said continue despite their announcement that they no longer had 50 acres in north San Marcos under contract.

“We continue to talk to them about their future here,” Narvaiz said.

Kyle’s population is already an estimated 30,000, nearly six times more than its 2000 population of 5,314. At that rate it is projected to surpass San Marcos by 2010 with about 50,000 residents.

At Thursday’s event, Hays County Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton recalled a gag sign that used to look over a mostly abandoned downtown Kyle in the 1970s.

“It said, ‘Kyle, Texas: Hub of the Universe,’” Barton said. “Back then there was a certain wistfulness or irony to it. Today, we are in a very different Kyle.”



bradrollins@yahoo.com

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