UT Southwestern, a leading academic medical center in Dallas, will create a new facility in southwest Dallas RedBird Mall to bring more specialized health care to an underserved community at greater risk of disease and early death.
The expansion is expected to lift the southern Dallas economy, too, adding momentum and a high-profile vote of confidence to a major redevelopment project thats already received $22 million in taxpayer subsidies.
UT Southwestern has leased an old Sears site and will convert 150,000 square feet into an outpatient medical center. The nonprofit organization expects to focus on heart disease, cancer, neurological problems and behavioral health, and employ at least 100 health care workers.
It will coordinate and collaborate with Parkland Memorial Hospital, which is creating a smaller facility for primary care in the same mall.
The medical school is renowned for research, and patients at the new UT Southwestern Medical Center at RedBird will be able to participate in clinical trials.
We saw an opportunity at RedBird to really deliver on our mission and commitment, said Dr. Daniel Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern. Its a natural when you look at the map to have this anchor in the south.
Elected officials and community advocates have long tried to attract investment and business to southern Dallas, and most agreed that public and private support were required, said Tennell Atkins, a council member who represents the district that includes RedBird.
Peter Brodsky, a former private equity investor, bought the mall then known as Southwest Center Mall four years ago. He persuaded the city to put up $22 million in cash and loans, largely to rebuild infrastructure.
Brodskys project has several wins already, including a bustling Starbucks and a major apartment complex that broke ground last month. A call center company, Chime Solutions, has moved into the mall and brought almost 400 jobs, with more to come.
Still, UT Southwestern represents another magnitude of impact, said Atkins, whos represented the area for 11 years. UT Southwestern oversees about 3 million outpatient visits a year, along with providing care to over 105,000 hospitalized patients and almost 370,000 emergency room cases. It has about 17,000 employees and an operating budget of $3.2 billion and brings in almost $470 million in faculty research.
This will breathe new life into everything, Atkins said. Merry Christmas, south Dallas!
UT Southwestern has a huge campus north of downtown Dallas, next to Parklands flagship facility and Childrens Medical Center Dallas. It also has smaller medical centers in the Park Cities, Las Colinas, Frisco and Fort Worth and no facilities in the southern half of the metro area.
Dallas-Fort Worth has experienced a building boom in health care, but projects have been concentrated in fast-growing, affluent cities to the north. UT Southwestern and partner Texas Health Resources just finished a new hospital and medical center in Frisco. Earlier this year, rival pediatric providers announced plans for two new childrens facilities in Prosper, just three miles apart.
Southern Dallas has a shortage of primary doctors and specialists, lagging the median supply in all of Dallas County and the nation and the gaps are projected to grow, UT Southwestern said. In southern Dallas, mortality rates are much worse for heart disease, stroke and cancer, according to a local community needs assessment.
There are many factors contributing to that disparity, but one of them is certainly access to health services, Podolsky said.
Ten years from now, the success of the new facility will be judged by the improvement in health outcomes for nearby residents, he said.
But the economic impact matters, too: Whats that old saying? You can do well by doing good, he said.
Some might assume this is a philanthropic venture, driven solely by the need for more health care in that part of the city. Podolsky said theres also a solid business case.
While more people in southern Dallas are uninsured, many residents have good health coverage through their employers. And the population and family spending power are growing.
We believe this will be a very sustainable, viable business, Podolsky said.
Although profit margins may not match some affluent areas of Dallas, he expects the operation to be self-sustaining with a modest margin enough margin to continue to invest.
Brodsky gave UT Southwestern credit for stepping up in a big way, not only for expanding to the south but for being open to moving into a repurposed shopping mall.
Brodsky targeted medical providers because they would generate traffic for the mall, create high-paying jobs and help fill a vital need in the community. But most potential tenants believed it would be a money loser.
Its safe to say we pitched every hospital in town, Brodsky said. The conversations didnt get very far.
UT Southwestern was open-minded about the possibilities of southern Dallas and setting up shop in a mall. Officials took trips to Jackson, Miss., and Nashville, Tenn., to tour malls that had attracted health care services, including major academic medical centers.
They were impressed by how the malls had been reinvented and the communities reenergized by the activity, said Dr. John Warner, executive vice president of health system affairs for UT Southwestern.
We saw the impact on the health of the community and the public engagement, said Warner, who made the trips. They were meeting people where they were.
The RedBird deal is the first time that UT Southwestern has taken such a space for a facility, Podolsky said. And the company signed a 15-year lease.
That shows this isnt just a temporary philanthropic gesture, Brodsky said. It bothers me when people assume that anything coming to southern Dallas is about philanthropy. Thats not true.
He challenges another common assumption in local business: that opportunities are better in more affluent areas up north. They may have higher median incomes, faster growth and more commercial health insurance, but they also have a lot more competition.
Early movers in southern Dallas have plenty of upside, he insisted. But most are waiting to see whether the project works for tenants of the mall as well as residents of the region.
Over two years ago, Brodsky made an impassioned play for a major national retailer that would be an ideal anchor. A company executive said the opportunity sounded fantastic, but the timing wasnt right.
He said, Wed like to be your fifth major tenant, Brodsky said.
Maybe Brodsky should try that pitch now.
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