UM plans $498M facility to replace aging hospitals

4/22/2005

ANN ARBOR - The University of Michigan Health System intends to build a $498 million facility to replace its C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and UM Women's Hospital.

Krista Hopson, a university spokesman, said a significant number of the hospitals' patients come from northwest Ohio, but she didn't have a breakdown available of the exact numbers.

The new facility, which needs state approval, would occupy a million square feet. The existing children's hospital was built in 1969; the women's hospital opened in 1950. The new facility will be located on the "Terrace Site," the surface parking lot south of Taubman Health Center on the UM Medical Campus.

Ms. Hopson said a construction schedule hasn't been set, but university officials hope to start building the new facility next year and finish by 2011.

The women's hospital portion of the existing structure will eventually be demolished, and the children's hospital portion will be converted for use by adult patients. No state funds will be used to build the new building. Instead, a fund-raising campaign and hospital cash reserves will pay for it, Ms. Hopson said.