UIHC eyeing $45M in upgrades, including $25 million at new North Liberty campus

IOWA CITY — Two months after delaying the timeline of its new $2 billion inpatient tower, citing federal health care-related funding cuts, University of Iowa Health Care next week will ask the Board of Regents to approve $45.5 million in facilities upgrades across its three inpatient hospital campuses.

Largest among the spending requests is a $19 million to $25 million ask to “build out all shell space projects at the UIHC North Liberty campus.”

The university’s new five-story, 469,060-square-foot orthopedics-centered hospital at the corner of Forevergreen Road and Highway 965 debuted in late April — realizing years of planning and overcoming a range of obstacles, including an initial state denial of the project’s certificate of need and rising construction costs that ballooned its budget.

“The number of patients seen at North Liberty campus has exceeded expectations, with a high demand for surgical services,” UIHC officials reported in their new request of regents to build out the shell space. “The need to enhance operating room capacity at the North Liberty campus is consistent with what UI Health Care is seeing across campuses and reflects the growing surgical needs of Iowans.”

After the State Health Facilities Council in September 2021 approved the $230 million hospital portion of the North Liberty project — having initially denied it in 2020 — UIHC officials unveiled the full $395 million scope of the project, encompassing academic, research and clinical space. Less than a year later, in July 2022, UIHC officials returned to regents with a 33-percent budget hike request to $525.6 million — citing industry challenges, inflation, limited materials and labor shortages.

Initially, the project was constructed with unfinished space aimed at accommodating future expansion, officials said in the request going before the board next week for blanket approval to build out all the shell space.

“This authorization provides the flexibility to plan for the completion of shell space as needed to accommodate growing patient volumes and service needs,” according to the request. “The estimated $19 million to $25 million total cost for all projects would be funded by UI Health Care earnings and equity, 100 percent.”

Per the UIHC request, officials said they intend initially to move forward with outfitting four shelled operating rooms, pre- and postoperative areas, and the campus’ post-anesthesia care unit.

“The remaining shelled areas, including additional inpatient beds, imaging, and staff support spaces, would be completed at a future date as needed,” officials said, indicating plans to initiate the design process as soon as possible.

Regent approval of shell-space construction could bring the North Liberty campus’ total cost up to $575.6 million.

‘Growing surgical needs’

Also at next week’s meeting, UIHC officials are seeking regent permission to spend $20.5 million renovating and upgrading the UIHC Medical Center Downtown, its surgical pathology lab suite on the main campus, and its helipad.

The helipad project would spend $5 million to relocate outdoor air intakes in a Level 8 Roy Carver Pavilion mechanical room that provide ventilation and conditioning for support spaces on the fifth and sixth floors.

“The relocation of the outdoor air intakes is required to minimize the infiltration of helicopter exhaust fumes into the building during unique weather conditions,” according to the UIHC request. “The proposed scope of work addresses this issue by relocating the outdoor air intakes of the two affected air-handling units to the south side of the facility, thereby increasing separation distance from the helicopter landing pads and reducing the likelihood of contaminant entrainment into the ventilation system.”

That project, if approved, would start in the upcoming spring and continue for a year through spring 2027.

Additionally, the university wants to spend nearly $10 million renovating 14 operating rooms and associated diagnostic and treatment platforms at its Medical Center Downtown — which had been the community-based Mercy Iowa City hospital until UIHC bought it for $37.4 million at bankruptcy auction in November 2023.

“UI Health Care is working to enhance operating room capacity across its campuses to meet the growing surgical needs of Iowans,” according to the UIHC regent request for proposed downtown upgrades, referencing its North Liberty ask. “The operating rooms at downtown campus need modernization to meet current UI Health Care standards of care that enhance patient outcomes and clinical efficiency.”

The $10 million would go toward outfitting the campus’ operating rooms with new equipment, replacing finishes, updating infrastructure, upgrading information technology, and improving medical gas systems.

And another $6 million on the main campus would allow UIHC to renovate its surgical pathology lab suite.

“As UI Health Care works to meet the growing surgical needs of Iowans by modernizing and expanding operating rooms across campuses, there is also a need to update support spaces,” UIHC officials said in its board request. “This includes improvements to the surgical lab suite that provide greater efficiency and capacity.”

Funding cuts, tower delays

In late August, UIHC officials announced changes to its many campus construction plans — including the proposed 842,000-square-foot Jacobson Tower, which the university expected to start this year and finish by 2030, according to board documents.

Given federal health care-related funding cuts expected to strip $9.5 billion from the State of Iowa over the next decade, UIHC decided to delay three projects pitched as enabling the new $2 billion tower.

Hospital parking ramp 1 — a 57-year-old, 165,000-square-foot structure that has “extensive deferred maintenance and was not built to the design standards of today’s vehicle size” — will “remain open for now.” Sitting on the site of the future inpatient tower, that ramp was supposed to come down in early 2026.

Additionally, the four-story, 69,000-square-foot Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center — built in 1967 and scheduled for demolition this fall — will “remain for now.”

And plans for hospital entrance and skywalk improvements — among nearly $73 million in early-phase tower work the board approved in June — also were placed on hold.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com