Healthcare

Crawford Long Hospital’s new $270-million hospital and headquarters features a new medical office tower and state-of-the-art facilities. Having received approval from the state two years ago to redevelop its aging campus, Crawford Long and Cousins Properties Inc. have partnered to build one of the largest hospital construction projects ever undertaken in Georgia. The six-story hospital will consolidate outpatient services from several buildings and will house an emergency department triple the size of current facilities. Physicians will be located directly above the patients they serve.

Ground was broken on Inova Fairfax Hospital's new heart institute in earlly April. The $122-million, 280,000-sf Falls Church facility will be the first center devoted to treating cardiac disease in the Washington area. The four-story facility will be built by contractor Turner Construction and is slated for completion in spring of 2004. The 656-bed hospital will add an additional 156 beds, increase its cardiac operating room count from four to six, and gain additional electrophysiology and catheterization lab facilities.

Sacred Heart Medical Center, part of the PeaceHealth network, has awarded the Portland office of Turner Construction Company the contract to provide pre-construction and general contracting services for a $280-million replacement hospital in Springfield, Ore. Pre-construction begins immediately and construction is scheduled for completion in 2007.

Schepens Eye Institute of Boston’s extensive renovation of its main entrance and lobby area was recently completed by Wise Construction Corp. of Winchester, Mass. Payette Associates provided design services for the project.

The University of Texas Medical Branch is establishing a Galveston telehealth research center slated to open in late April. The SBC Foundation, part of SBC Communications, awarded the medical complex a $1-million donation. The facility is the first of its kind in the nation.

In October, Bethesda-based Dental Benefits Providers is relocating its headquarters and approximately 300 workers to 75,000 sf in Rockville's new King Farm Development. The health care company is a division of United Healthcare of Minneapolis, one of the largest dental benefit providers in the nation. 

A new 143,000-sf addition to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia, will expand the hospital's surgery and cardiovascular services while helping to organize existing floors more efficiently. The expansion to the facility's 10-story South Pavilion building will add a total of 126 beds to the hospital's critical care and progressive care units. Expected completion date for the project is fall 2003. Designed by HOK of St. Louis, the expansion's construction budget is $30,800,000.

Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI) has relocated its national call center, credit, billing, accounts receivable and third-party payer operations to the 58,000-sf KCI Advantage Center at the University Park Tech Center IV in San Antonio. The health care products maker previously housed these operations in 28,000 sf adjacent to the KCI Tower across the street. KCI's 290 employees were relocated in early March to the new facility, which was dedicated on April 5.

Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center has selected RDK Engineers of Andover and Boston to expand and renovate its Brockton hospital. The $10-million, 50,945-sf project will include a two-story, 8,720-sf addition in front of the hospital and extensive renovations to ground and first floor levels of the existing hospital. Completion is anticipated in June 2003.

The National Center for Children's Rehabilitation, created in partnership by the Children's National Medical Center and the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH), is scheduled to open July 1 in Washington. The top floor of NRH's three-story northwest D.C. facility will be renovated to create 15,000- to 25,000-sf of space housing an initial 10 beds to care for patients age 12 to 18.

As part of its master alliance program with Kaiser Permanente, McCarthy is beginning tenant build-out for a $10-million medical office building in Folsom, Calif. Designed by architect Gordon H. Chong & Partners of Sacramento, the three-story, 116,000-sf structure will contain adult primary care, OB/GYN, optical, pharmacy, radiology, pediatric, and medical records areas, as well as exam room space. Adhering to a tight nine-month schedule, McCarthy is performing the TI work concurrent with the building's construction.

South Texas Medical Center has planned $136 million in capital projects for the current year, with projects totalling $165 million planned for the next five years. Ground was broken on the Children's Cancer Research Center, a $50-million facility providing space for up to 18 principal researchers and their staff. The Children's Cancer Center is part of a $67-million development at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, which will also include an academic administration and student services facility.

Rex Hospital of Raleigh has initiated a $20-million remodeling and construction project that will add two new outpatient operating rooms, a new admission and registration entryway, and a new four-level parking deck providing an additional 410 spaces for visitors. The project is slated for completion in two years.

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente Health Plan is planning to spend $375 million on a new 1.2 million-sf hospital and 870,000-sf medical office building in Santa Clara, doubling Kaiser's current Santa Clara facilities.  A new $7-million emergency department will be added to Kaiser's Santa Teresa Hospital in South San Jose, more than tripling its existing 5,000-sf emergency facilities. A hospital in Redwood City is still in the planning stage.

An expansion of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center will create a new $160-million "City of Medicine Center". The mixed-use campus will include research labs, private-sector medical office buildings, educational-administrative offices, residential facilities and retail space. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is joining national real estate firm LCOR of Pennsylvania in developing the City of Medicine Center, which is slated to begin construction in four to six months.