Grab a coffee, play with cats at new $52M Arizona Humane Society campus
The Arizona Humane Society’s newest campus, which includes a trauma hospital, intensive care unit and adoption facilities opens in Phoenix this week, after more than two years of construction.
The new facility, located at 55th and Van Buren streets in Phoenix, replaces many of the functions of the Sunnyslope campus, Dr. Steven Hansen, CEO of the Arizona Humane Society, said. The Sunnyslope campus will be reused as a community animal clinic, Hansen said, but all shelter operations will move to the new campus.
The facility cost $52 million to develop, Hansen said. Most of the funds came from legacy donations, and the rest came from saving up donations for the years that the new campus was planned. Dogs, cats, rabbits and other pets, like guinea pigs and even rats will be available for adoption.
Public can visit coffee shop, hang out with cats
The facility was designed to be welcoming to the community, Hansen said. Echo Coffee, a Valley-based coffee shop that also has a location in south Scottsdale, operates a coffee shop in the lobby of the building, which is open to the public and serves coffee drinks and pastries. The shop will donate 1% of its revenue back to the shelter.
People are also welcome to walk through the public-facing portions of the shelter, which includes an outdoor “cat-io” area, where people can come throughout the day and play with shelter cats. Hansen said he hopes nearby office workers might come during lunch breaks or other visitors might stop by to spend some time with the animals, even if they aren’t looking to adopt one.
Where is the Arizona Humane Society campus?
The site, which boasts views of Papago Park and Camelback Mountain, was donated by Mike and Cindy Watts, who owned it as an industrial site, Hansen said.
When looking for a new location, the organization wanted somewhere that was centrally located, freeway accessible and safe. The new location checked all the boxes and did not need any rezoning to allow animals to be housed there.
Animal Arts Design Studios, an architecture and design firm focused only on animal facilities, designed the facility. Ryan Cos. was the general contractor.
High-quality working conditions for employees and volunteers was a critical part of the design, Hansen said.
“Compassion fatigue is a serious problem, we have a lot of tough cases,” he said.
To make the building a nice place to work, it was designed to have natural light, large windows, break areas like outdoor patios and decks, and a break room for staff with comfortable furniture. The organization is always hiring, he said, and most jobs open include animal care, adoption work and veterinary technicians.
Across locations, the Arizona Humane Society has 19 veterinarians and about 400 staff members, Hansen said. The number of staff will continue to grow as the organization rolls out services at the new facility.
Hospital is the main focus
Despite the perception of the Arizona Humane Society, the shelter portion is not the main function of the facility, Hansen said.
“Our primary purpose for existing is our hospital,” he said.
The organization takes in about 22,000 animals per year and about 80% of animals that arrive at the shelter require some kind of treatment at the hospital, he said.
The treatments vary greatly, but he said often animals come in after being found injured or ill. The Arizona Humane Society has ambulances that will go around the Valley and pick up animals that have been found by police or members of the public that do not have an owner. The animals are evaluated based on the severity of their condition and treated at the hospital.
The new facility was planned with the hospital and illness treatments in mind, Hansen said. The facility has an enclosable area where ambulances can park that prevents animals from escaping, and they arrive directly at the hospital, so a sick or injured animal can be immediately moved into the hospital setting.
The change is especially important for infectious diseases like the parvovirus, he said. The new facility has a two-winged parvo ward with separate ventilation to quell the spread of any other infectious disease a sick animal might bring in, like canine distemper.
At the Sunnyslope facility, an animal with parvo would have been taken through the main facility, potentially exposing other animals to a contagious disease.
Veterinary students from the University of Arizona and Midwestern University also use the hospital as a “teaching hospital” while they are in their final year of school, Hansen said.
Public can walk through, see kennels, surgery prep
Members of the public can even see preparations for surgeries, like spays and neuters, through a window in the publicly accessible part of the campus. Veterinarians, technicians and veterinary students prep and anesthetize animals in a room that is viewable through a window from a public-facing courtyard. The animals are then moved into surgical suites for the procedure.
The clinic now only serves animals that are being sheltered at the site, but Hansen said the Humane Society plans to open it as an after-hours urgent care community clinic in 2025.
After being seen in the hospital, animals can be moved into the intensive care unit, if needed. The intensive care unit has IV stations, oxygen and other medical equipment for animals, and has access to a backup electricity generator to preserve the function in case of a power outage.
The campus has maternity wards for both dogs and cats and a “bottle baby” facility for newborn kittens that are brought in without a mother and need to be bottle-fed by hand. Hansen said last year during “kitten season” from March to November the Arizona Humane Society took in about 2,000 kittens and expects to see even more this year.
The Arizona Humane Society has about 500 animals housed in its shelters and another 500 with foster families, Hansen said.
Reach the reporter at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CorinaVanek.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Humane Society campus features coffee shop, cat play area
