AMARILLO State officials gave updates on a land lease deal that will bring a much-needed mental health hospital to Amarillo.
Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, announced the completion of a land lease between Texas Health and Human Services Commission and The Texas A&M University System that will provide a location for the new 75-bed Panhandle State Hospital in Amarillo.
“Our region has desperately needed a state hospital for many years, yet multiple challenges stood in the way,” Price said in a news release. “With those challenges now successfully addressed, it’s gratifying to see a new state facility being built here in Amarillo to serve the Texas Panhandle. I’m extremely grateful to my legislative colleagues, local leaders and The Texas A&M University System, including West Texas A&M University, whose collective hard work brought us to this point.”
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents unanimously approved a deal in May which would lease a 10-acre tract of land the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory formerly occupied at 6610 W. Amarillo Blvd. before it moved its lab to the West Texas A&M University campus.
“The land lease is an example of how state agencies can and should work together for the good of citizens,” West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler said. “This deal represents an ideal vertical cooperation between government agencies starting with the Governor, Texas Health and Human Services Commission, The Texas A&M University System, the City of Amarillo, and West Texas A&M University.”
TVDML is leasing the Amarillo site for $1 a year to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to construct the mental hospital. HHSC plans to break ground on the hospital late this summer and begin admitting patients in fall 2027.
The 88th Texas Legislature provided $159 million to build the hospital but directed the Health and Human Services Commission to work with local stakeholders to find the land for it.
The WTAMU Foundation has raised $750,000 to purchase the bus terminal adjacent to Harrington Academic Hall WTAMU Amarillo Center, 720 S. Tyler St. The university also worked with the city of Amarillo and the Amarillo Economic Development Corp. to assist in using the property to further expand WT’s Laura and Joe Street School of Nursing.
Ultimately, the net effect is a swap: TAMUS received $1.3 million for WT in exchange for entering the land-lease deal with HHSC. WT will use that money to expand its footprint in downtown Amarillo, enabling the University to strengthen its nursing programs in behavioral health and provide a trained workforce for the new hospital, addressing health needs across the region and state.
“The real bottom line here is that Amarillo and the rest of the Panhandle get the mental health care the region needs, but never had,” TAMUS Chancellor John Sharp said.
Other speakers at the press conference — held at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Research Building, 6500 W. Amarillo Blvd. —were scheduled to include Texas state Sen. Kevin Sparks (R-Midland); and Scott Schalchlin, deputy executive commissioner for the HHSC Health and Specialty Care System.
