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COVER STORY its first 25 years of operation. ¶ The idea, Union Village partner David Baker said, is to create an "integrated health A COMPLEX EQUATION T it's cancer treatment, acute care or physical therapy. "We think of it as a more efficient, more cost- effective way to build a health care center," Baker said. A flurry of public meetings followed the April announcement, culminating in an $11.6 million agreement approved by the Henderson City Council to sell a 151-acre parcel of city-owned land to build the complex. In the year since, there have been few visible signs of progress, as the developers have retreated behind the scenes to secure financing and finalize deals with hospitals and retailers who will occupy the space. As part of the land sale agreement, the city has filled a large gravel pit that occupied the proposed site of Union Village. But the April 12 deadline for the close of the land sale has been delayed four months while right-of-way and zoning issues are ironed out. Baker, a former mayor of Irvine, Calif., who helped develop the Irvine Medical Center, said much of the past year had been spent revising the master plan, conducting traffic and engineering studies and negotiating with tenants. "Everything's lining up. It just takes a while to get the definitive agreements signed," he said. "It's a little like conducting a symphony. ... There are 50 different components in it, and we're trying to get them all to harmonize." Baker says if everything goes according to plan, the project will break ground in September or October, with serious construction under way by the start of next year. The decision to keep the project under the radar was a conscious one, Baker said — a calculated move in a region that has seen ambitious billion-dollar projects announced only to stall out halfway through construction or fail to materialize altogether. But local economists and health care experts say the project has the potential to significantly alter the health care landscape in Southern Nevada, creating a health care magnet that draws medical professionals and patients alike to the region while increasing the standard of care available to local residents. "This is going to be very attractive. When you have "Everything's lining up. It just takes a while to get the definitive agreements signed. It's a little like conducting a symphony … There are 50 different components in it, and we're trying to get them all to harmonize." village" — the first of its kind — that provides a convenient, connected location for people seeking medical care, whether he scope of the Union Village project is staggering: four hospitals, 1,000 residential units for senior living and hundreds of thousands of square feet of medical office space built into a mixed-use development that would also include restaurants, shopping, hotels and even a movie theater. Developers claim Union Village could create 17,000 jobs, draw up to 30,000 visitors daily and generate $10 billion in tax revenue during