Industry Pulse (October 2007)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt University Board of Trustees in recent weeks took the first steps toward a massive expansion of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The board approved $5.4 million in planning fees for a proposed addition that would add a $203 million, eight-story, 340,000 square foot tower. The project would include the addition of 72 to 96 pediatric beds, 36 neonatal intensive care beds, 36 obstetrical beds, a nursery for newborns, 16 to 20 labor and delivery rooms and five to 10 operating rooms. The building would connect to the existing, freestanding children’s hospital, which is part of Vanderbilt University Hospital. A groundbreaking is expected in 2009 and construction is scheduled for completion in 2012. Ever since the freestanding children’s hospital opened in 2004, it has experienced a 37 percent increase in discharges and a 53 percent increase in operative procedures.

OAKLAND, Calif. – Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland recently announced that it plans to build a future $700 million, 250-bed replacement hospital at its current site – not at other sites suggested by Oakland officials. The hospital’s chairman, Harold Davis, told local news outlets: “We have history here… This is where people are used to seeing us. We can stay here easier than we can (go) any other place.” The hospital, which opened in 1912, faces the state’s seismic retrofitting deadline of 2013. It hopes to begin construction by 2010. Children’s Hospital plans to find an alternative use for the old structure once the new facility is complete. The hospital plans on raising $150 million in private donations and using $173 million in past and future state bond money. Another $300 million would be footed through a parcel tax that Children’s plans to present to voters in Alameda County in February 2008. The $700 estimated price tag is $100 million higher than estimates from just a year ago. Since then, however, 50 additional beds have been added to the plan because of increasing patient counts. Children’s currently rents bed space at two nearby campuses of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

GRAFTON, Wis. – Aurora Health Care and Advanced Healthcare, both of the Milwaukee area, recently announced plans for a new 89-bed hospital in the village of Grafton, north of Milwaukee along the shore of Lake Michigan. The two healthcare organizations formed an alliance in July. The future 400,000 square foot  Aurora Medical Center is slated for a 105-acre site in Grafton; the campus would include an 80,000 square foot medical office building (MOB). Also included at the medical center would be a 24-hour emergency department and a Vince Lombardi Cancer Center, named for the legendary Green Bay Packers coach. Before moving forward, the plans for the hospital need to be approved by the village of Grafton. So far, officials have not announced a potential completion date for the future hospital. Advanced Healthcare is a physicians’ organization with 250 primary care doctors and specialists at 14 clinics throughout the greater Milwaukee area. Aurora Health Care has 12 acute care hospitals located throughout the eastern part of Wisconsin. It is also building a new hospital in the town of Summit, in a growing area west in the far western suburbs of Milwaukee. That facility is expected to open in 2009.
LOS ANGELES – Officials working on the replacement Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center in Los Angeles have authorized spending an additional $18 million on the project, bringing the estimated total cost for the 1.5 million square foot complex to about $900 million. That figure is about $80 million more than original estimates for the project, which is slated for completion in spring 2008. County supervisors originally approved building a 600-bed facility in 1998 to replace the Depression-era building east of downtown L.A. However, because the hospital was damaged in the Northridge earthquake in 1994, the federal government is kicking in more than $400 million toward the rebuilding. Construction started in 2002 and is about a year behind schedule because of heavy rains several years ago and other factors, according to county officials. The finished project would have four buildings covering three city blocks.

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Trenton, N.J.-based Capital Health System has found a new location for its proposed replacement for 112-year-old Mercer Hospital in Trenton. Capital Health officials recently received Certificate of Need (CON) approval from the state of New Jersey to proceed with the building of a 540,000 square foot hospital on a 165-acre site in Hopewell Township, near Princeton, N.J.  In 2006, Capital Health had received state approval to proceed with a replacement project on a 32-acre site in Laurence Township. But when a larger site became available in Hopewell Township, the system changed its plans. Capital Health would buy the property from Merrill Lynch, which has an office complex adjacent to the site. The current plans call for a six-story patient tower that would be connected by an atrium to a 320,000 square foot, six-story MOB that would house physician offices and outpatient services. The total cost for the medical complex is estimated at $400 million.

SONOMA, Calif. – As of recent weeks, a new location had not been finalized for a replacement facility for Sonoma Valley Hospital. Site selection has been delayed, according to board members of the Sonoma Valley Health Care District, because negotiations for a site are ongoing. Members of the board have not revealed news about the site selection process since May, when the Sonoma Valley Health Care Coalition passed its final recommendation for a replacement facility. The hospital hired San Francisco-based Tsang Architecture and an engineering firm to explore two sites to determine which would be the most feasible. One of the options includes building the replacement at the hospital’s current site. Plans call for a 56-bed hospital that would cost about $130 million.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill – Northwest Community Hospital in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights recently broke on the most expensive construction project in its history. The Renaissance Project, as it is being called, is a $250 million campus redevelopment that is slated to include 332,000 square feet of new and renovated space. The featured aspect of the plan is an eight-story, 225,000 square foot patient care tower on the south side of the hospital campus. The tower is to house an emergency department, a 24-bed critical care unit, as well as added space for medical and surgical patients. The architectural design calls for all private rooms with same-handed room layouts, a feature aimed at increasing patient safety. Northwest is seeking LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The project is slated for completion in 2010. The architect is Chicago-based OWP/P, and the construction contractor is Schaumburg, Ill.-based Power Construction Co. q