Connecticut Children’s has submitted a 345-page master plan to the Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission outlining its ambitious $280 million expansion that will reshape the hospital’s Hartford campus.
The centerpiece of the expansion, first reported by the Hartford Business Journal in June, is a new 195,000-square-foot, eight-story patient tower on its Washington Street campus. The plan also outlines construction of a possible future parking garage across Washington Street.
Connecticut Children’s current campus measures about 321,000 square feet with 187 beds.
The expansion will also involve the creation of a new fetal care center.
In a June interview with the Hartford Business Journal, Connecticut Children’s President and CEO Jim Shmerling said only a handful of fetal centers exist throughout the country.
“This will save lives,” Shmerling said at the time. “We believe a program like this that is so comprehensive will attract patients from all over the country and will make Connecticut a destination center for these types (early intervention of birth defects, including ailments that impact a newborn’s heart or nervous system) of illnesses.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on the plan Oct. 11. The parking garage – which would include a pedestrian walkway and utility shed – would be owned and operated by a third party and part of an independent permit application process at a later date.
According to the master plan, the expansion/addition will result in 50 new NICU beds; 14 acuity adaptable patient beds; six advanced cellular gene therapy beds; six labor and delivery/recovery/postpartum beds; and capacity for 25 future beds. The project, the master plan says, also includes two new operating rooms in the fetal care center.
The project, officials said, is expected to create upwards of 500 new jobs – including temporary construction positions as well as the hiring of about 25 new physicians and more than 130 nurses.
The new tower will also include support space; central sterile processing; a gift shop/lobby; and GI endoscopy suite and processing.
Officials said the hope is that construction could begin in April 2023 and that the tower could be completed by the end of 2025.
Connecticut Children’s said it plans to pay for the $280 million expansion by utilizing a number of different funding opportunities including philanthropy and loans.
