A traditional topping off ceremony took place May 7 at the construction site of White Plains Hospital’s new 10-story 475,000-square-foot building that will include a new emergency room, new operating rooms, new patient rooms and more. Construction workers, hospital officials and invited guests participated in a construction industry tradition by signing their names on the final beam before it was lifted by a crane and secured in place at the top of the steel framework of the new structure. The final beam was adorned with a traditional evergreen and American flag for its ride to the top.
The new building will feature 240 single-bedded patient rooms as the hospital moves to make all of its patient rooms single occupancy. Once the new building is open the hospital would be equipped with 436 total licensed beds. The new emergency room would be more than twice the size of the current emergency department. The fourth floor of the new building would be dedicated to housing mechanical and air-handling equipment in a 24-foot-high space immediately above the new operating rooms. A new garage across East Post Road from the hospital is planned as a separate project and would have a pedestrian bridge across the road.
Estimated cost of the new building is $750 million, which the hospital said is being financed by a combination of a $500 million bond from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, philanthropy and hospital equity.
Suffolk Construction is the project manager and Ralph Esposito, the firm’s national president, told those gathered for the topping off ceremony that the project is one that is close to his heart.
“Both of my boys were born at this hospital and for those of you who have two very active children you can appreciate that the weekly visit to the emergency department at White Plains Hospital is just about as common as a visit to Chick-fil-A or Five Guys,” Esposito said. “Additionally, my mom was a patient (in White Plains Hospital) last week and got amazing care, compassionate care. She said to me at one point ‘I feel like a princess, that’s the level of attention I’m getting here.'”
Esposito had special thanks for the ironworkers who have been putting up the structural beams because they wrote a message to his mom on a beam across from her room that urged her to feel better.
“Today we’re going to place the final beam and it’s a milestone that represents not only steel and concrete but all of the hard work, all of the perseverance, all of the collaboration that we got from all of the trades, men and women, on this project during a very, very difficult winter,” Esposito said.
Susan Fox, president and CEO of White Plains Hospital and regional senior vice president for the Hudson Valley at Montefiore Einstein said, “It was just about a year ago that we stood on this site for our official groundbreaking. At that groundbreaking I emphasized that we are not just constructing a new building; we are laying the foundation for the future of White Plains Hospital, a future that ensures we continue to provide the highest quality of care for generations to come.”
Fox recalled that the planning for the new building has taken a number of years and that during that time the hospital has added many new services for the community.
“A few years ago patients had to travel miles for advanced care,” Fox said. “Today we are providing the highest level of cardiac care, cancer care, neurological care as examples right here in our community and we are providing that care at the highest level from safety, outcomes and patient experience perspectives.”
Fox announced that the hospital had just received its 15th consecutive “A” Hospital Safety Grade from national nonprofit watchdog The Leapfrog Group. The hospital has received an “A” rating each period since the start of 2019, and is the only hospital in the Hudson Valley and one of only four hospitals in New York state to receive this top grade 15 straight times. White Plains Hospital is among only 4% of hospitals nationwide that have maintained a straight “A” rating for more than 10 consecutive grading cycles by The Leapfrog Group.
Fox pointed out that the hospital has doubled the number of patients it treats over the last decade and that the new building will again increase capacity. She had special words of praise for the construction workers who had assembled for the topping off ceremony.
“What you are building is extraordinary, both in its scale and its purpose,” Fox said. “Your work will help make healing possible for every patient who walks through our doors.”
At the topping off ceremony, William Null, chairman of the hospital’s Board of Directors, told Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal that they expect to have the new building opened in January 2028.
