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CORAVILLE
UI wants to buy land for $73 million outpatient facility
Reporter: Gigi Wood
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics’ plans for a medical facility at the Iowa River Landing District have changed in two important ways.
First, the hospital selected a site north of Ninth Street in Coralville for its location. This clears up question marks for several business owners along First Avenue who were waiting to see if UIHC was interested in locating on their land.
Officials did say they may look at areas south of Ninth Street for future expansion. Acquiring land south of Ninth Street now would be too difficult because parcels are owned by several businesses, some which were uninterested in selling. To keep the project on track for a mid-2012 opening, UIHC chose city-owned land, about where the former Hawk-I Truck Stop once stood.
“We could try to go south and it could take 10 years for this all (east of Perkins and west of the Antique Car Museum) to be developed or we could go north and we could be in a project that would be developed in the next two to three years,” said Ken Kates, UIHC’s CEO and associate vice president.
Second, UIHC plans to buy the land instead of leasing it, as originally planned. UIHC officials said buying the land makes the most sense for the facility in the long-term.
“Working with the state attorney general and a number of other people it was determined that this (buying land) is the best way to handle this project,” Mr. Kates said. “Ultimately, we are buying into a subdivision and will build our building on it. The river landing will be the subdivision.”
These decisions will allow other development of the Iowa River Landing District to begin. Coralville leaders were waiting for UIHC to make its final site planning decisions before the city can proceed with plans for the area, at the southeast corner of Interstate 80 and First Avenue. The district includes the Coralville Marriott and the city has been buying up lots in the area for years for redevelopment.
Coralville is working with OliverMcMillan, a San Diego-based developer on attracting commercial development, such as restaurants, retailers and tourist attractions to the district.
UIHC officials discussed plans for a $53 million, five-story, 150,000-square-foot medical facility with the Board of Regents at its meeting in Ames on Feb. 3. Equipment and furnishings will cost an additional $20 million, bringing the total price tag to $73 million. Hospital bonds would pay for most of the project.
“It became clear that the most convenient site for our location and only logical site where we can build an outpatient medical facility is the Iowa River Landing site in Coralville,” said Jean Robillard, UIHC’s vice president for medical affairs. “No other site will offer us the space, the visibility and the convenience for our patients.”
The site is safely outside of the flood plain, officials said.
“For those of us who are flood-sensitive, looking at the Iowa River Landing area, we asked the (U.S. Army) Corp of Engineers to do a study and we’re high and dry at this site,” said Gordon Williams, UIHC’s chief operating officer.
The facility will accommodate 300,000 annual patient visits and house 225 staff members on a 1.2-acre lot. It will move portions of several outpatient clinics from UIHC’s main campus on Hawkins Drive to First Avenue, diverting 20 percent of the hospital’s outpatient traffic to the new location. Outpatient clinics include general internal medicine, general pediatrics, women’s health services, cardiology, cardiac rehab, dermatology, diabetic center, gastroenterology, general surgery, ophthalmology, rehabilitation services, pain clinic, otolaryngology, urology, radiology and pharmacy.
Free patient parking will be available at an adjacent three-level parking ramp owned by the city.
UIHC officials made the case for the project to the regents.
“We are still facing a great deal of challenges in delivering excellent care to our patient population because the capacity for outpatient growth is constrained,” Mr. Robillard said. “And we must be able to respond to changes in technology and to be sure we can increase our capacity. The concentration and location of our clinics (on the main campus) is not patient-friendly.”
One of the main hospital’s biggest problems is parking. Between 1992 and 2008, peak traffic levels at the Hawkins Drive and Melrose Avenue intersection increased 23 percent. Parking ramps are often at 100 percent capacity; industry standards call for a maximum of 85 percent capacity, Mr. Kates said.
He said the facility also is very challenging for patients to navigate.
“Since 1995 up to 2009, we’ve seen an additional 250,000 ambulatory clinic visits or a 50 percent growth. That’s roughly 1,000 additional patients a day in the clinics or 3 (percent) to 5 percent growth every year,” he said. “We cannot continue to operate efficiently with more and more patients at our present facility. Many clinics have experienced double and triple percentage growth.”
Space that is freed up at the main hospital will be used to reduce compression, move offices and expand programs and research. Regents will decide whether to approve the project at their March meeting. CBJ
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