Proposed med school nears completion; developers seek more time on related projects

By the end of the year, construction will likely be completed on the proposed Kansas Health Science Center – Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The prospective medical school, which is set to anchor pharmacist-turned-developer Sudha Tokala’s downtown education complex, still has an accreditation hurdle to clear before student recruitment can begin.

School officials say they hope pre-accreditation will be granted in the next few months so they can welcome their first class of students in August 2022. Final accreditation wouldn’t come until after that first class graduates.

Tokala’s vision for the education complex also includes the National Institute for Culinary and Hospitality Education, which will house WSU Tech’s new culinary arts program, as well as a 119-apartment student housing facility and a 119-room AC Marriott Hotel.

On Tuesday, Tokala’s development company, Douglas Market Development LLC, plans to ask the Wichita City Council for a project extension on the student housing facility from August 2022 to December 2023 and on the hotel from March to December 2022, citing delays related to the pandemic.

The developers will also ask the council to issue $10 million in industrial revenue bonds and a five-year 100% property tax abatement on the culinary school building, which broke ground in August.

The city has already invested millions of dollars in Tokala’s project in the form of IRBs, tax abatements and other incentives, as well as asbestos removal and facade improvement costs.

The city also spent $1.3 million in tax increment financing that dedicates future property taxes to pay for the redevelopment of the Chester I. Lewis pocket park, which is being repurposed as an entry plaza for the private medical school.

Failure to meet project deadlines would normally trigger clawbacks on public money, but Assistant City Manager Scot Rigby said Friday that the developer shouldn’t be punished for COVID-related construction delays. He expressed his confidence that the developers will deliver on the projects.

“The contractor says they can only find so many people to do so much work, and so instead of doing all the buildings at once, they’re having to prioritize,” Rigby said.

“There’s no delay on the medical school, which is the core project.”

The school will take up 116,000 square feet of space in the five-story former Finney State Office Building.

One highlight of the facility is a virtual anatomy lab, where students can use holographic technology to identify and dissect body parts.

Tiffany Masson, president of Kansas Health Science Center, said the virtual anatomy lab will offer more flexibility than a traditional cadaver lab, where donated bodies only last for a year.

The college will offer a four-year program with students spending their second two years in clinical rotations honing various specialties before choosing the best fit for them.

A 2019 study published by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that the U.S. will face a shortage of up to nearly 122,000 physicians by 2032.

“There is a desperate lack of physicians, especially in our underserved and our rural communities, and we have to be able to train physicians that are committed to going back into those communities and giving back,” Masson said.

“A way in which we want to be able to do that is really have those early clinical immersion experiences for our students to go into those underserved communities and see what patient care looks like and how it is that they can contribute when they go into clinical rotations, potentially into a residency program in those spaces.”

Masson said the college’s first class will have 85 students, which will eventually double to classes of 170.

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 5:02 PM.