Avera Health has announced their largest building investment project yet, the expansion of two Sioux Falls campuses. At a cost of US$245 million, the large healthcare center will be located on both the Avera McKennan Campus, near 20th Street and Cliff Avenue, and the Louise Health Campus in southwestern Sioux Falls.
“In line with our value of hospitality, our new tower will create a welcoming front door to our hospital. At the same time, we’re excited to create a focused area of clinical excellence for women’s and children’s services at Avera McKennan,” said Avera McKennan CEO Ronald Place.
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The Avera McKennan Campus expansion
The project at the Avera McKennan campus will feature a six-story, 223,000 square-foot addition to create a new main entrance for the systems. It will also have a focused area for women’s and children’s hospital services. The addition will add 158 total beds. The new tower will allow Avera to create a dedicated and centralized space for women’s and children’s acute care.
Furthermore, it will expand areas for the unique hospital needs these two populations require: labor and delivery, postpartum care, newborn nursery, neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric hospital care and pediatric intensive care. Additionally, plaza 3 on the Avera McKennan campus will be demolished to make room for this project. It is currently home to the Avera Transplant Institute. Construction is expected to begin in mid summer and be completed in early 2027 for the McKennan campus expansion.
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The Louise Health Campus expansion
The expansion at the Louise Health Campus will feature a three-story, 127,000 square foot building constructed to focus on digestive health services. Gastroenterology services are currently in the Avera Specialty Hospital and attached medical building, however, that space will be converted for Avera’s growing orthopedic services. “The rapid growth of our Sioux Falls community is exciting, and it also means Avera McKennan must grow with it. We are looking to the future and preparing to care for the people of our growing region,” Place said. Construction is expected to begin mid summer and be completed in early 2026 for the Louise project.
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The Sanford project
Not too far from the largest Avera investment in Sioux Falls, Sanford is also undertaking a US$210 million medical campus expansion. They include major upgrades on the main campus of the Sanford USD Medical Center, including an orthopedic hospital more than a decade in the making. Nearly three-quarters of the estimated $209.5 million in projects will go toward the orthopedic investment. It will start with a two-story, 33,000-square-foot expansion of the Van Demark building on Sanford’s main Sioux Falls campus. Work will start this fall and opening in spring 2022. That will add 23 exam rooms and space for eight additional surgeons and 12 advanced practice providers.
