Planning process delays Lucile Packard hospital rebuild - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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CEO Christopher Dawes said delays in winning entitlements from the city of Palo Alto are likelu to add at least a year or two toLucile Packard’ s timetable. As a result, its estimate d $1 billion expansion project is likely to becompletwe “more realistically” in 2015 or rather than 2014. “We have more planning to do, we’re somewhat at the mercy of the city of Palo Dawes said, indicating he’s hopinv to complete the entitlement process within the next few and definitely by year end.
In a Palo Alto City Council study session lookinginto Stanford’s projects came up with a “wisg list of 58 it might ask the university for, accordinv to the San Jose-Silicon Valley Business Journal. The list includef everything from a newtransit hub, an upstream water-detention basinh for San Francisquito Creek, and 594 housing unitss to free psychiatric services for homeless residents. Some city officiale had concerns aboutthe projects’ impactsa on traffic and housing.
A montu later, Stanford ditched plans to enhance its so it coulr focus on the two hugehospital projects, a move that could cost the city millionsz of dollars in anticipated tax revenue and impactr fees from the shopping center and a planneds 120-room hotel. Steven Turner, a senior city agreed with Dawes that the entitlement proceszs has taken far longer thananyonr anticipated, citing both the need for inputy from various boards, commissions and the public, and changes by including the need to tweak the environmental impact repor t to eliminate references to the now-defunct shoppinbg center expansion, including traffic impacts.
“We were substantially completse with the EIR when the university pulledx theshopping center” Turner said. Evaluating three overlappin g project “just got complex,” said City Council membere Greg Schmid. Stanford Hospitall & Clinics, which alon g with Lucile Packardand Stanford’s School of Medicind makes up , is projecting that its $2.5 billionh expansion and seismic rebuildx project will take until 2015 to two years later than it had hoped. Stanfordr Hospital is adding 824,0000 square feet of space and 144 beds to its existing resulting in a largelynew 600-bex adult hospital and ER.
Luciler Packard, meanwhile, is planning a 520,000-square-foot, 200-bedd addition that will add 100 beds net to itscurrent 260-bede footprint. One hundred current beds will be decommissionedc as it turns shared rooms intoprivate ones. That will include makingf all 51 labor-and-delivery rooms private, versus 25 percentr today. The addition will featurr two 100-bed pavilions to be spliyt about 50-50 between medical-surgicapl and intensive care beds, along with up to sevenh new operating rooms and additional imagingy capabilities andcath labs.
Overall, it might cost less than $1 billiobn to do the upcoming work “if we coulfd put the shovel in thegrounr today,” Dawes said, because Packard could take advantage of steell and other construction costs that have dropped dramatically. “What’as holding us back is the he said. Turner, meanwhile, said the city “wants to make the best possibles decision. We want to get it righft the first time.
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