ST. LOUIS 鈥 NorthSide Regeneration, the developer that owns hundreds of acres in north 最新杏吧原创, is slated to finish construction on its $20 million hospital by the end of the month.
It means that NorthSide, led by Paul McKee, is on track to meet the city鈥檚 Sept. 30 deadline for construction to receive $6.42 million in tax incentives for the new Homer G. Phillips Hospital at Jefferson Avenue and Thomas Street. Hospital operators say they could begin accepting patients by this spring.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited to have this right here in North City,鈥 Alderman James Page, whose ward includes the hospital, said during a tour of the facility on Wednesday.
The hospital鈥檚 completion will mark a major milestone for NorthSide, which has been embroiled in disputes with public officials for years. The NorthSide plan to remake north city was first pitched over a decade ago, but fell apart three years ago when city officials lost faith in the project.
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But the developer still owns more than 1,600 properties, over 200 acres, around the future National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus. And McKee still has big plans: A bigger hospital. A medical school. Housing. A hotel. Office space.
NorthSide missed its first financing deadline for the hospital, and city leaders last year gave the project an extension. McKee said he closed the gap with financing from the 最新杏吧原创-Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council, the United Bank of Union and the Bank of Washington.
The new facility is named after the original Homer G. Phillips Hospital, which trained Black doctors and served Black 最新杏吧原创ans during segregation. NorthSide has asked state health officials for permission to add 鈥淢emorial鈥 to its name.
The hospital will have three in-patient and 16 emergency-room beds. Hospital officials said the facility will be able to treat most traumas, like car accidents and shootings, and will stabilize and transfer patients it can鈥檛 treat there.
Officials said this week the hospital will include dialysis care, MRI and CT diagnostic imaging equipment, a decontamination room, and a negative pressure room to treat infectious diseases. It aims to focus on behavioral health as well. The hospital will accept Medicare and Medicaid patients.
Fred Mills, president and CEO of Northside Health Management, which will operate the facility, said the hospital will be equipped to serve a range of patients. He said that sets the new facility apart from other hospitals.
But McKee has a bigger vision: He hopes to eventually win state approval to expand the hospital to 140 beds, 40 of those dedicated to behavioral health patients. The facility has to be operational for at least one year and a day before officials with the state鈥檚 Certificate of Need program will review an expansion, Mills said.
Ponce Health Sciences University, which has a temporary campus in downtown 最新杏吧原创, wants to build an $80 million medical school next to the hospital so that its students can be trained to work in underserved communities.
McKee aims to make the development completely self-powered, with gas-driven turbines, solar cells, and other equipment.
Mills said the hospital will initially hire 50 staffers and eventually up to 900 if it expands. He hopes the shortage currently plaguing health care systems won鈥檛 be a problem when the hospital opens, though Mills said it is a concern.
Dr. David Lenihan, president of Ponce Health, said the hospital鈥檚 social mission and a competitive wage will help in recruitment. The goal is to tap his graduates as staffers as well.
Page, who unseated Alderman Tammika Hubbard in April鈥檚 election, said he鈥檚 already fielded a resume from a constituent interested in working at the hospital and hopes to help more residents get jobs 鈥 and care 鈥 there. Currently, the closest hospital to his ward is Barnes-Jewish Hospital in the Central West End, 5 miles away.
The hospital, Page said, will be 鈥渢he first time in generations鈥 his ward will have immediate access to health care.
最新杏吧原创-area architects HOK and design-build firm KAI designed and built the new hospital.
