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UIHC seeks regent approval for phase one of new inpatient tower
UIHC already has spent $137.2 million on aspects of the project that did not require board approval
Jun. 3, 2025 2:52 pm, Updated: Jun. 4, 2025 10:23 am
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IOWA CITY — For the first time since airing in 2022 plans to build a new 842,000-square-foot inpatient tower, University of Iowa Health Care has brought the project before the Board of Regents in seeking approval to spend $72.5 million on “early work.”
UIHC already has spent $137.2 million on aspects of the project that didn’t require board approval — like planning, pre-design services, feasibility studies, and construction cost estimating, according to board documents. That total included a $95.1 million agreement with JE Dunn Construction in 2023 for pre-construction services.
The $72.5 million “project description and budget” for which UIHC is seeking board approval next week will cover what officials say will be the first of three phases of the larger project:
- Phase I “early work“ will include renovation and expansion of UIHC entrances, creation of a new entrance point for the existing skywalk, demolition of the existing main entrance canopy, plus other utility and infrastructure;
- Second phase work will involve deep foundations, shoring, and major utility work;
- And a third and final phase will encompass construction of the actual inpatient tower — which officials have projected will cost more than $1 billion.
Among the early-stage enabling projects for the new tower -- projected to be 80 percent bigger than the new 469,060-square-foot UIHC North Liberty Hospital and 66 percent bigger than the 507,000-square-foot UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital -- are several demolition projects.
Specifically, UI officials next week are seeking board permission to raze the 65-year-old Hospital Parking Ramp 1 and water tower, and the 58-year-old Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center.
A timeline for the projects indicates first phase improvements — if approved by regents next week — will start this summer and wrap next summer. The demolition work is expected to be complete by spring 2026, with core construction of the patient care tower spanning 2028 to 2032.
Although the university has not brought a total budget projection before the board, planning and bid documents have indicated expectations topping $1 billion -- with UIHC earnings covering the costs.
Progress toward a new inpatient tower on the UIHC main campus across from Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City comes as the health care system continues its regional and statewide expansion — including the addition of its first newly-constructed inpatient beds at an off-campus location with the April debut of its North Liberty hospital.
UIHC also last year paid more than $28 million to buy the former Mercy Iowa City hospital in a bankruptcy auction — absorbing it into its network as a new “Medical Center Downtown.”
‘Modernization and growth’
In pitching the new inpatient tower three years ago via a 10-year facilities master plan in which the university also proposed expanding the Tippie College of Business and modernizing the Iowa Memorial Union, officials cited a burgeoning “health care crisis.”
Without renovation and modernization, more than 44 percent of the university’s existing hospital beds would become “obsolete” over the next decade, according to the facilities plan, which said UIHC would need to grow by 400-plus beds to satisfy Iowa’s anticipated complex health care needs.
“If UIHC runs out of capacity, UIHC’s financial stability will be threatened,” according to the plan, reporting its 848 beds at the time were more than 80 beds shy of the number needed to accept every patient needing to be seen.
“The large increase in the number of patients that need to be seen at UIHC is driven by the aging of the population (creating more complex care needs) and retirement of community providers,” according to the plan.
The UIHC system currently reports 1,092 inpatient beds — including those across the main medical center, downtown campus, UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, and North Liberty site.
When officials three years ago outlined the need for a new inpatient tower, they projected needing 1,076 inpatient beds by 2031 — meaning the campus with its downtown and North Liberty additions is ahead of its 2031 needs, excluding those in use needing to be replaced due to age.
“The patient care tower would support UI Health Care’s ability to accommodate projected future patient growth and improve patient experience by increasing inpatient and surgical capacity to meet projected demands and reducing the number of semi-private patient rooms,” according to regent documents seeking phase I approval. “The patient care tower is a strategic project which would enable continued planning and development of the UI Health Care University Campus to achieve the goals of accommodating growth, improving the patient experience, integrating research and education and facilitating future modernization and growth.”
‘Mock-up space’
In addition to the phase I under consideration, the university for years has been paving the way for the new inpatient tower via enabling projects like a new Health Sciences Academic Building, West Campus Parking Ramp, and Newton Road connection.
In detailing the first phase of tower construction, officials said they plan to:
- Expand and renovate the John Pappajohn Pavilion south entrance, constructing a new drop-off canopy, vestibule, and lobby;
- Relocate the skywalk connection to the Roy Carver Pavilion and demolish that pavilion’s main entrance canopy;
- Modify the driveway outside the fountain entrance and build a new interior connector to the current main entrance and discharge lobby;
- Modify the drive lanes at the main entrance and construct a new drop-off canopy at the Stead Family Children's Hospital entrance;
- Undertake sanitary sewer and stormwater upgrades, along with other infrastructure and ancillary site work like fencing.
“This budget also includes funds to secure warehouse space for construction, material, and equipment staging, and full-scale design mock-ups for the future patient care tower,” according to board documents. “The mock-up space is critical to validation of the design as it progresses.”
More expansion, renovation
Beyond the inpatient tower project, UI officials next week are seeking board approval for a $28 million addition to its Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories — which sits along the Iowa River next to the Iowa Memorial Union — and a $23 million renovation of its Cambus Maintenance Facility.
The 21,000-square-foot addition to the 1992 Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories would make room for the UI Computer Science Department — currently housed in the 111-year-old MacLean Hall in “outdated and poorly configured” space.
“Programs in big data, informatics, and the recently established joint degree between computer science and the College of Engineering require facilities and technical infrastructure that can respond to increasing enrollments and facilitate cutting-edge, multidisciplinary activities,” according to the UI request for board approval. “Laboratory spaces would enable the Computer Science Department to support and expand relationships with a variety of research partners, including UI Health Care.”
The department is home to about 900 undergraduate majors — up more than 300 percent since 2006 — including 512 students in the computer science major, 83 in the informatics major, 72 in data science, and 243 in computer science & engineering.
Including graduate students, the department enrolls about 3,500 annually and nets more than $3 million a year in research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and U.S. Department of Energy.
The current IATL building includes two wings — one hosting the advanced technology research wet laboratories and the other housing office and support space.
That wing, according to the university, “is not well utilized.”
“The amount of service space needed for the labs has diminished over the past decade,” according to board documents. “The intent is to use this space for the Computer Science Department. Approximately 10,000 square feet would be renovated for instructional space, departmental offices and meeting spaces.”
In addition to the renovation, the university aims to build a third wing that had been designed as part of the original construction “but never completed due to budget constraints in 1992.”
“Completing this addition would provide the balance of instructional laboratory space needed for computer science.”
That project, if approved, would begin this fall and finish in summer 2027.
Project costs would be covered mostly through UI “treasurer’s temporary investments” — income derived from investments made with private gifts, grants, contracts, service operations, and property sales.
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
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