Bloomington Hospital buys 3 acres for future expansion

On Aug. 9, Bloomington Hospital finalized the $6 million purchase of three acres in the North Park development. The land is just the first of the 85 total acres Bloomington’s largest hospital will buy over the next six years as it expands its facilities.\nThe 85-acre property is located at Curry Pike and State Road 46 – about four miles from the main hospital campus – and will be paid for over the next six years. \nBloomington Hospital will build a new outpatient services center and a new inpatient services center to better serve the 10 county region Bloomington Hospital already caters to, said Mark Crain, vice president of support services. With the new space, Crain said patients will be able to enjoy natural surroundings and sunlight as well.\n“We bought the land to meet future growth,” Crain said. “For many years the board of directors and people who are involved in the planning have noticed that the current location would not fit the needs of the hospital. (The new location) will allow us to keep our facilities in a more contained location.”\nPresently, BSA LifeStructures, the architectural and engineering firm handling the new development, has divided the property into the two future building sites. However, the company has set no definite timeline for breaking ground, Crain said. \nTodd Buerger, an architect with BSA LifeStructures, said BSA has evaluated the land site and submitted what it believes would benefit the hospital the most, compared to standard hospital plans. BSA has focused on calculating the density of the new buildings and determining how many beds could fit in, for example, an outpatient facility, Buerger said. \n“There are no definitive answers, as it’s all still very preliminary,” Buerger said. “We’ve come up with a few options for (Bloomington Hospital’s) senior planning committee. They are still digesting it and looking at what you might call their business plan.”\nWhile Bloomington Hospital has not yet responded to BSA with its final decision, plans for the expansion are moving forward. \n“We’re certain the first facility will be an outpatient facility,” Crain said. “We do have an option to accelerate the (purchasing) process, but we don’t anticipate that will be the case because in six years we will have all of the property.” \nPatients of the new facilities will find Bloomington Hospital more accessible, energy efficient and more focused on “nature as a source of healing,” Crain said. The new buildings will take advantage of early morning sunlight and late afternoon sun, using solar power to limit the amount of energy it takes to cool large buildings. \n“To me the most exciting thing is to be able to design new facilities that incorporate not only technology … but (also) the demonstrated healing effects of nature,” Crain said. “The site we’ve selected (will have) plenty of nature and lots of open green space along with natural daylight and landscaping. This also gives us the opportunity to be more energy efficient.” \nWhile still in the time-consuming strategic planning phase, planners of the new development will incorporate what makes the most sense for the health needs of the community, said Amanda Roach, Bloomington Hospital’s medial relations coordinator. \n“It will be another opportunity to service and benefit the people,” Roach said.