Pressed to secure a contractor in the region”™s resurgent construction market, White Plains Hospital officials are moving ahead one year early on the second phase of an estimated $75 million to $80 million renovation and expansion project at the 120-year-old hospital.
An $18 million first phase of the project, which included infrastructure upgrades and renovations to antiquated operating rooms in the 292-bed facility, will be completed within a month, White Plains Hospital CEO Jon B. Schandler told Westchester County Local Development Corp. board members at their Sept. 9 meeting.
The county LDC agreed to induce $108 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance the project. That will include $89 million for project costs and contingencies during a two-year construction period and $19 million to refinance existing debt, said Edward F. Leonard, the hospital”™s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Leonard said Cain Brothers & Co. L.L.C., the Manhattan-based investment banking firm serving the health care industry, will assist in private placement of the bonds. The hospital has had interest from banks in the project, he said.
Jim Coleman, executive director of the county LDC, said the hospital will save about $3 million in financing costs through the county”™s 2-year-old LDC compared with tax-exempt bonds issued by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.
Scheduled to break ground in November, the second-phase project will feature a six-story, 39,000-square-foot addition to the hospital with a new entrance and lobby designed by project architect Perkins Eastman with a glass-enclosed waiting-area atrium and café. Upper floors will house five operating rooms and 24 private rooms that will bring to 114 the number of private rooms for patients. A new radiology outpatient center will be added near the main entrance.
The existing lobby will be demolished in the next month, Schandler said. “The faster we can get the new lobby open, the better off we”™re going to be,” he said.
Schandler said the completed project will make 60 percent of patient rooms private, compared with 30 percent previously. All existing rooms will be renovated and a modern, computerized lounge for physicians will be added.
The full project will add 51,000 square feet of space and renovate 14,000 square feet at the 2,100-employee hospital.
Leonard estimated the project will add 400 permanent jobs at the expanded facility.
The building project will create about 75 full-time construction jobs. Gilbane Building Co., headquartered in Providence, R.I., is the project contractor.
Schandler said hospital officials moved up the expansion phase of its “The Time Is Now” project by a year out of concern that contractors might not be available because of the state”™s new Tappan Zee Bridge construction and rebuilding in the region from Hurricane Sandy.
Schandler said the “dramatic savings” from financing through the LDC and the “responsiveness and accessibility” of County Executive Robert P. Astorino”™s administrative team “is what closed the deal and got this project rolling.” He said the nearly $3 million in savings over the next 30 years will be invested in patient support, life-saving technology and clinical training.
