Dive Brief:
- Mortenson Construction has finished construction on one of the largest private projects in the history of the Dakotas, the $494 million Sanford Medical Center in Fargo, ND, according to Twin Cities Business.
- The HKS-designed, 11-story facility took five years to build, with an investment of almost 2.5 million hours performed by 42,000 workers.
- The 1-million-square-foot hospital will serve a wide geographic area when it opens this summer and will offer almost 200 specialized services to an estimated 4,200 patients a day.
Dive Insight:
Mortenson is also involved with an even bigger project southeast of the Fargo hospital, the first phase of the 20-year, $6 billion Destination Medical Center for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Mortenson will develop Discovery Square, which is just one of six sub-districts that make up the center. When complete, it will host Mayo and private-company research, have its own commercial and product development space and serve as an "urban bioresearch campus."
Last summer, Mortenson also won another significant hospital job, the $485 million Mercyhealth hospital in Rockford, IL, the biggest project in the town's history. The hospital, which is expected to open in 2019, will include a seven-story, 451,000-square-foot building that serves women and children, a five-story multi-specialty building and a Level 1 trauma center. AECOM is providing the architectural and engineering services for the project.
Over the past several years, healthcare construction has shifted to smaller, more accessible facilities, largely due to the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. In order to meet the demand, speed is essential in these projects, with some developers turning to modular construction to accelerate schedules.
In October, Dodge Data & Analytics Chief Economist Robert Murray predicted a 5% increase in healthcare starts in 2017 but also said there will be uncertainty in that sector until it is clear what changes President Donald Trump's administration plans to make to the ACA.
