INDIANAPOLIS-Duke Realty has started construction of a 274,000-square-foot office building here on the campus of Eskenazi Health hospital, formerly known as Wishard Hospital. The developer will own the building with the Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County, which owns Eskenazi Health, and the office will be fully occupied by hospital staff and faculty of the nearby Indiana University School of Medicine.
The HHC embarked in June 2010 on a $745 million project to build an 11-story hospital tower, an ambulatory care building, a new power plant and this office building, after receiving approval by county voters in 2009. The new facilities will allow the current Wishard Hospital to move from older facilities throughout the city.
Keith Konkoli, a Duke SVP, tells GlobeSt.com that the current hospital campus, which is spread out over 17 buildings, includes facilities that were built about 100 years ago. The new hospital will include 315 inpatient beds, 200 outpatient beds, a 2,400-car parking garage, a 90-bed emergency treatment center and a women’s health clinic.
The university has said it will take over some of the 17 buildings. Wishard has partnered with IU since 1909, and more than 99% of the health system’s doctors are faculty members.
Local couple Sidney and Lois Eskenazi donated $40 million to the Wishard Health System, and thus the new 37-acre campus has been renamed in their honor. Fifth Third Bank also donated a sum for the construction of the office complex, earning the firm the naming rights to the building, Konkoli says. Construction of the Fifth Third Faculty Office building will be complete by December 2013, and the hospital will open with the office and care center in early 2014, he says.
Eskenazi Health officials said in a statement that the new 1.2-million-square-foot campus will serve more patients in one-third less space than the current facilities, and it will use half the amount of energy with 12% lower operating costs. Konkoli says this type of move is being copied by health systems throughout the country. “We’re continuing to see hospitals look at ways they can use different sources of financing and capital, so that they can spend more on providing direct services to their clients,” he says.
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