Sun Health, a non-profit healthcare system with two medical campuses in the Sun City area, has picked at site in the suburb of Litchfield for the new medical complex. At build-out the medical campus will have a hospital, nursing home, retirement housing and medical office space.

Construction is set to begin in August on an $11 million medical office building, which will have 75,000 sf of space. Sun Health is developing the office building in a joint venture with Mesa-based Broad Land Cos.Next to be built will be a $25-million, continuous-care retirement community, with skilled-nursing, assisted-living and independent-living facilities.

The hospital won't be built until the population in the area reaches a number that justifies the need for it, according to a company official.

The campus will be built on a parcel at the corner of Litchfield and Camelback roads in the far West Valley, near Luke Air Force Base and the Wigwam Resort.

Sun Health is not the only healthcare company considering a hospital for the fast-growing West Valley. Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems Inc. is buying the 35-acre Palm Valley Medical Campus in Goodyear and plans to build a hospital there. Banner Health Systems Inc. is reportedly in escrow on a parcel at Interstate 10 and the Loop 101, where it plans to begin building a hospital later this year. Catholic Healthcare West also is considering building a hospital on a parcel at I-10 and Bullard Avenue, which the organization has owned for more than a decade.

The latest count from the US census confirms what most developers and community leaders have known for years, that the region's population growth is shifting from the East Valley to the West Valley. Some of the fastest growing cities in Arizona are in the West Valley.

Much of the land in the East Valley has been built on for the past 30 years, and now there are few parcels closer than 25 miles from Phoenix that are available for residential development. Consequently, homebuilders are working on development in the West Valley, specifically in Glendale, Avondale, Tolleson and Buckeye.