CONCORD – The state Business Finance Authority is poised to issue $140 million in tax-exempt bonds to fund a major development project by the Elliot Hospital in Manchester.

The BFA wants to issue to bonds to cover the costs of a new urgent care center on part of a 17-acre site along the Merrimack River off south Elm Street. The property is the former site of the Jac Pac meat-packing plant.

The bonding also will help refinance about $30 million in existing Elliot debt; a small portion of the funds will be used for improvements at other Elliot properties.

The Executive Council will take up the bond proposal at its meeting tomorrow at the State House.

The project, known as Elliot at River's Edge, was first proposed in October 2007. By the time it is finished in the summer of 2011, it is expected to provide 250 new jobs in health care, with average pay and benefits of $55,000 each, according to BFA documents.

The new care center would be roughly 236,000 square feet and would have five levels that include an urgent care center, out-patient surgery, radiology, occupational medicine and a sleep center. A parking garage with room for 966 cars is part of the project.

Eventually, a medical office building, retail and residential space will also be built on the site. This bond issue is only for the urgent care center and garage.

Jack Donovan, BFA executive director, said this is one of the larger bond issues his agency has handled recently. Most of BFA's clients are small manufacturers capitalized at up to $10 million, he said.

"This is a much bigger transaction, but we're happy to help them," Donovan said.

The development will provide a major anchor at the south end of Elm Street, and is expected to invigorate the area between the Verizon Wireless Arena and Queen City Avenue.

The city took over the property in 2004, after Tyson Foods decided to close the Jac Pac operation and left more than 450 people jobless. Manchester developer Dick Anagnost bought the site in 2007 and is a partner in the development.

Plans originally called for River's Edge to open in 2010, but the ailing economy put a crimp in the investment climate and slowed financing, Elliot Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President Richard Elwell said.

Demolition experts imploded the old Jac Pac buildings a year ago. Elwell said construction crews are working on the foundation now.

Elliot plans to shift much of its outpatient care to the new center, but the offices will not serve as a full service emergency room.

"The ambulances will not be going in there," Elwell said.

The urgent care center will take pressure off emergency room services at Elliot Hospital, and serve as a place for patients to seek care when their physicians are not available.

The building will be owned by the Elliot Physician Network, which was formed as a tax-exempt non-profit in 2000 and comprises 23 practices with 80 physicians and other providers.

Elwell said the bond obligation will ultimately fall to the Elliot System.