University of Michigan to build $498M Medical Complex

The University of Michigan plans to build a hospital that's as modern as the medicine being practiced at C.S. Mott Children's and Women's hospitals in Ann Arbor.

Both hospitals will be housed in a $498-million complex by 2011, officials announced last week.

The current Mott and Women's hospitals, opened in 1969 and 1950 respectively, have outgrown their seven-story structure at the U-M Health System as medicine has advanced and patient demand has skyrocketed. Recently, a new piece of MRI equipment had to be lowered into the hospital through the roof because the facility's hallways and doorways could not accommodate it.

"This new complex will house the newest technology and the most cutting-edge care in an environment that is much more supportive for families," Pat Warner, administrator for the two hospitals, said Sunday. "We are also designing this hospital with as much creativity and flexibility as possible because health care is changing so rapidly."

Construction of the new complex was approved Thursday during an emotional moment at the U-M Board of Regents meeting.

Regent David Brandon, cochair of a fund-raising campaign for the hospital, recalled looking through the glass in Mott's neonatal intensive-care unit 25 years ago as doctors worked to save his newborn twin sons. His wife, Jan, also a campaign cochair, beamed from the audience as the board unanimously approved the project.

About $448 million in hospital reserves and bonds will be used to fund the project.

Private gifts include $25 million from the Flint-based C.S. Mott Foundation, which also provided $6.5 million to build the first hospital named for auto pioneer and philanthropist Charles Stewart Mott. An additional $4 million has been donated by the Carls Foundation, and $500,000 has been raised from the sale of blue wristbands.

No federal or state dollars are being used to fund the project, according to Dr. Robert Kelch, U-M's executive vice president for medical affairs. Kelch was in the last year of his residency in pediatrics at Mott when the current Mott hospital opened.

Construction of the million-square-foot, 10-story complex will begin in winter 2006 on a parking lot south of the Taubman Center along East Medical Center Drive. The complex is scheduled to open in June 2011, and is being designed by Dallas-based HKS Architects. An exact bed count has not been determined, but 90,000 square feet will be held in reserve to allow for expansion, according to Warner.