Set to open in 2010, the facility will house pediatric specialty care units currently housed throughout the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, which is a dual campus medical center located on both sides of the river. Pediatric behavioral services, the Birthplace and 41-bed neonatal intensive care unit will remain in the existing medical center. However, these units will be updated and will be connected to the new facility by tunnel and skyway.

Fairview president and chief executive officer David R. Page says the facility will increase operational efficiency. "This building will bring our care specialists together in closer proximity, allowing patients, families and clinicians the ability to interact much more easily," Page says in a statement. "On top of that, putting services under one roof will streamline operations in so many ways, from supplies to lab services."

The pediatric facility will be built at 25th Avenue S. and Riverside Avenue, on land currently used as a parking lot. Fairview is the developer, and Jacobs Engineering Group is the project manager. The project architects are Tsoi Kobus and Associates and Hammel Green and Abrahamson. Fairview plans to finance the project primarily through bonds and philanthropy. The Fairview board approved the project on Jan. 8.