Covington received a preview of Valley Medical Center’s plan for a medical mall in the Town Center area at the City Council meeting Tuesday.
Mike Glenn, senior vice president of business development for Valley, Rich Roodman, Valley superintendent and Sue Bowman, Board of Commissioners chair, attended the meeting.
Glenn outlined the project for the council members.
Valley is in the process of purchasing 10 acres in the Town Center behind Safeway and east of Fred Meyer.
The public hospital will pay about $5 million or $11.50 per square foot.
Glenn described a two phase project with phase one including a 24-hour free standing emergency department, specialty offices, public parking, a plaza, green space and gathering places.
Phase two includes medical and legal office space and retail shops.
Glenn said the emergency department would take about “half an acre. There will be a lot of landscaping and open spaces.”
Phase one construction costs are listed at about $21 million and phase two also about $21 million.
Phase one estimates are for 65 full time employees and 50 for phase two.
At the Monday, May 24 Valley Board of Commissioners meeting, the members approved a resolution for the sale of taxable Build America Bonds up to about $100 million.
According to John Bonow from the Seattle firm, Public Financial Management, the estimated total of bonds needed are about $88 million. The extra $12 million would not be used unless needed.
The bond sale will include paying off and refinancing bonds from 1997 and 1998, saving $700,000.
The project list for the bonds include completing and equipping two floors of the South Tower, renovating the old emergency department at the hospital and constructing the emergency department in Covington.
At the Covington meeting Glenn said Valley hopes to begin construction in “late October or early November or as soon as humanly possible.”
The city staff is currently completing the zoning regulations and design standards for the downtown area. The earliest the City Council will likely be able to approve the zoning and design regulations would be late summer.
