Turner Begins Work on $220M Expansion At Westchester Medical Center Project
By JOHN JORDAN – August 2024
VALHALLA, NY—New York State Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado was among the many dignitaries that joined Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s leadership on July 24 to commemorate the start of construction for the Critical Care Tower at Westchester Medical Center.
The Critical Care Tower at Westchester Medical Center, a $220-million project, will span 162,000 square feet and rise five stories when completed. Adjacent to Westchester Medical Center’s main tower, the Critical Care Tower at Westchester Medical Center will house 128 private, state-of-the-art patient rooms—all equipped with the latest and most advanced medical technologies for intensive care. The project is expected to be completed in 2026.
With this new project, WMC will have invested approximately $550 million in new capital projects at its Grasslands campus in less than a decade.
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla with nine hospitals on seven campuses in the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians.
“Advanced care is Westchester Medical Center’s bedrock service and as we break ground on the Critical Care Tower, we reaffirm Westchester Medical Center’s enduring legacy as the region’s unquestioned leader in advanced care,” said Michael D. Israel, president and CEO of WMCHealth, on July 24.
The Critical Care Tower at Westchester Medical Center will house several notable services, including advanced cardiac, neuroscience, oncology, and surgical specialty care. Additionally, Westchester Medical Center serves as the region’s Level I trauma center, and all trauma intensive care services will relocate to the Critical Care Tower, WMC officials stated.
The Critical Care Tower is the second major structural and service addition to Westchester Medical Center in less than a decade and follows the successful completion of the eight-story, $230-million Ambulatory Care Pavilion in 2019.
At press time, a spokesman for the Westchester-Putnam Building and Construction Trades Council said a Project Labor Agreement on the Westchester Medical Center expansion project was discussed but an agreement has not been reached. However, the spokesman for the BCTC said he expects the project to be predominately union. Turner Construction is the general contractor on the project.
The project is estimated to create more than 770 construction jobs and 127 new full-time jobs.
The Westchester County Local Development Corporation, which issued $195 million in tax-exempt bonds for Westchester Medical Center in connection with the project in 2023, estimated that Westchester County will receive more than $3.5 million in total economic benefits from the creation of the Critical Care Tower at Westchester Medical Center.
The construction of the Critical Care Tower at Westchester Medical Center will allow other WMCHealth services to expand. For example, pediatric emergency medicine at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and Westchester Medical Center’s women’s health services will benefit from this development, WMC officials stated.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer said, “We all saw what happened in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and realized that having the ability to surge in capacity at a moment’s notice was critical. The county was able to assist in the financing of WMCHealth’s Critical Care Tower with tax-exempt bonds through our Local Development Corporation, and it is our hope that this new facility will provide the highest quality critical care to the patients that need it.”