SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Avera McKennan’s campus in central Sioux Falls is getting a new, six-story front entrance.
“Our new tower will create a welcoming front door to our hospital, and due to additions throughout the years, Avera McKennan’s front entrance is currently nearly underneath another building addition and not readily visible to patients and visitors,” Dr. Ron Place, regional president and CEO for Avera McKennan, said.
As it is now, the front door is almost inverted.
“In fact for a house, the front door would seem to be in the middle of the living room,” Place said. “At the same time, we’re excited to create a focused area of clinical excellence for women’s and children’s services.”
Another new building, this one focused on digestive health at the health system’s Avera on Louise campus on the south side of the city was announced along with the tower on Wednesday.
“Combined, this will be the largest building project in Avera history at a total cost approaching $245 million,” Place said.
Back at the McKennan campus, the tower will be much more than a front door.
“The six-story tower will add areas for labor and delivery, post-partum care and newborn nursery, NICU, pediatrics and pediatrics intensive care,” Place said.
For her part, neonatologist Dr. Katherine Wang sees the tower as a unifying development.
“Now with the build-out of a new women’s and children’s center, I feel like it’s a consolidation of all the hard work we’ve been doing,” Wang said.
The plan is for construction to begin in 2024, with work estimated to wrap up at Avera on Louise in 2026 and at the McKennan campus in 2027.