St. Joseph's Hospital To Get $70M Expansion

ST. PAUL-HealthEast Care System plans a $70-million expansion and renovation project at St. Joseph’s Hospital in the Downtown area. Eight years after they considered shutting St. Joseph’s Hospital in Downtown St. Paul, HealthEast officials say construction will begin in March 2006.

The project will include a 175,000-sf, five-story patient tower adjacent to the hospital’s parking ramp, a 15,000-sf addition to a remodeled emergency room, a $500,000 helipad, a new lobby and new homes for its Heart Center and Neurovascular Institute. Another goal of the renovation at St. Joseph’s is to have 100% private rooms for the medical and surgical patients.

Boldt Consulting has been hired to plan the project, and interviews with architectural firms are underway. HealthEast has allocated $3.5 million for the development of building plans, which will continue throughout the next year followed by a groundbreaking anticipated in early 2006. The entire project will take several years to complete.