You'll be able to see this new Mexican health hotel from California, even if Donald Trump gets to build his great big wall.
Developers in Tijuana, Mexico, reportedly are planning to cash in on the longstanding phenomenon of Americans heading south of the border to get less-expensive health care by building a big new medical facility that will also feature a 140-room hotel.
The New City Medical Plaza would feature a 26-story tower that would include "doctors offices, a medical lab, a surgery center," according to a Los Angeles Times story about the project. It will cost an estimated $50 million, and is scheduled to open in 2019.
The one-stop health shopping center, whose developers have already sold 30 percent of its space, would be just a short walk from a border crossing that connects San Diego to Tijuana.
"A lot of our patients come from the U.S. We think it's going to be very convenient for our patients to have a place to stay, to have all the medical testing that we could use available here," Elias Bemaras, general director of stem cell treatment provider ProgenCell, told the Times. ProgenCell plans to move its operations into the new center.
Ives Lelevier, undersecretary of tourism for Baja California, told the newspaper that another similar large health facility is planned for elsewhere in Tijuana to take advantage of a resurgent trend of medical tourism.
"We seen an enormous potential, if we are able to promote it through a well-structured program," Lelevier said.
An estimated 1 million people — primarily from Southern California — already travel to Baja California to get medical treatment, Lelevier said. "We believe that we can bring people from areas that are further away."
Lelevier told the Times that the medical services that have the biggest potential for drawing U.S. residents to Tijuana are bariatric surgery, plastic surgery, ophthalmology and dental care.
Read the Times story here.