Arizona Sports Medicine Center, an orthopedic medical practice, marked a major construction milestone on March 27 with a ceremonial beam-signing for their new 34,000-square-foot medical office building, bringing the project one step closer to completion.

Arizona Sports Medicine Center is part of the Abrazo Medical Group. The new building is located on tribal land, inside the northwest boundary of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community just south of Via Linda and east of the Loop 101. It is a key addition to Sierra Bloom, a 43-acre mixed-use comprehensive healthcare and lifestyle campus that began construction in fall 2017.

Stakeholders, landowners and others involved in the project wrote their signatures with permanent markers on the beam, which will be placed atop the building before the scheduled completion of construction in the third quarter of 2026, according to a press release from Abrazo Health.

3 Takeaways:

• Construction of a new medical building for orthopedic practice Arizona Sports Medicine Center will be completed around September or October.
• A beam-signing was held on March 27 to signify a major construction milestone.
• Stakeholders and SRPMIC landowners attended the beam-signing event.

Landowner spokesperson Nancy Young and family and landowner Debbie Ludlow were present for the beam-signing on the unseasonably scorching spring day. Young had never been to a beam-signing before and said she had a good experience.

“We got to meet everybody. I thought it was nice,” said Young.

Community member and landowner spokesperson Broderick Antone couldn’t make it to the event but said that there will be more opportunities for him to sign other beams in the coming months.

“It’s like autographing the outside of a time capsule, and it is a part of Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community history,” Antone said of the beam-signing events.

Attendees stayed cool by sipping iced coffee beverages from Chickies Coffee under a canopy on the dirt lot.

Brian Elisco, Arizona Group CEO for Tenet Healthcare and CEO of Abrazo Health, said that he is excited for the opening of the facility, which is expected to be handed over to Abrazo Health by September or early October.

“It’s the perfect location to make sure patients can get access to some high-quality orthopedic care,” Elisco told O’odham Action News.

Elisco said that the comprehensive orthopedic care services provided will include general sports medicine, nonoperative and operative sports medicine, and specialty care of the hands, feet, ankles and shoulders. The facility will also provide physical therapy and imaging services. 

Amon Ferry, MD, head team doctor for the Arizona Diamondbacks and assistant team physician for the Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Rising, is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine surgery. His team will be based out of the Sierra Bloom campus.

“We’ll have on-site x-rays within our office and will likely have advanced imaging within the building such as MRIs, CT scans and diagnostic ultrasound,” said Ferry. The Arizona Sports Medicine Center will be able to provide injectable treatments such platelet-rich plasma, cortisone and stem cell injections, as well as other nonsurgical treatments including shockwave therapy.