Mayo announces $72M hospital expansion project

Mayo Clinic officials announced a $72.1 million expansion to parts of Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester.

The project includes adding five floors to the Mary Brigh East Building and renovating the third floor of the Domitilla Building at Saint Marys Hospital, according to a news release. In all, it will add nearly 132,000 square feet of finished space and 25,300 of shell space. The new expansion builds on an existing project to add four stories to Saint Marys Hospital and expanding the emergency room.

The two new construction projects are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2014 and be complete by 2016.

“Patient safety is of the utmost concern in the hospital setting and this project will meet the needs of the patient by creating a safe and welcoming environment that is patient and family focused,” Mayo's Medical Director of Hospital Operations Amy Williams said in a statement.

Clinic officials have said Mayo's Saint Marys Hospital is a priority for expansion. The new construction is part of Mayo Clinic's proposed 20-year, $5 billion investment plan to remake its flagship campus. The plan includes $327 million in state aid, largely to fund improvements to public facilities. Several blocks away from the hospital, Mayo is building a proton cancer therapy center and adding four floors to its healthy living center.

The five new floors will include three floors for patient care units, each with 23 private rooms for a total of 69 private rooms. The remaining two floors will be used for shell space and mechanical infrastructure.

Clinic officials say renovations to the third floor of the Domitilla Building, which currently houses one of the largest adult general care inpatient units at Mayo Clinic, will modernize the unit by providing private patient rooms with bathrooms and showers and adding ceiling lifts.

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