Dive Brief:
- The University of Virginia has awarded Skanska USA a $142 million hospital expansion and renovation contract, the company announced Thursday.
- Skanska USA will complete an 86,000-square-foot renovation, as well as build a 531,000-square-foot, 15-story new facility.
- Initial construction on the hospital project began in 2015, but it is not expected to be complete until December 2020.
Dive Insight:
This project is just one of several hospital contracts Skanska USA has won this year. In April, Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK, awarded the company a $62 million contract for its renovation and expansion. Then, in June and August, the company was awarded another three healthcare projects, the first of which a $200 million Lee Memorial Health System renovation in Fort Myers, FL. The agency selected a Skanska USA-led joint venture with Gates Construction to renovate the Gulf Coast Medical Center.
Skanska also won a $178 million contract to construct the Women and Children's Health Building for Christiana Care Health System in Newark, DE. The contractor will replace a neonatal intensive care unit and build more outpatient units, as well as a lab, pharmacy and parking garage. Skanska signed another joint venture deal when Duke Lifepoint Healthcare awarded Skanska and Closner Construction a $206 million contract to replace a hospital. In addition to a 538,000-square-foot medical facility, the JV will also build a parking garage and medical office building next door.
In October, Dodge Data & Analytics Chief Economist predicted that healthcare starts in 2017 would increase 5% for a total of 69 million square feet. That segment has been in a bit of a holding pattern as the industry waited out the November elections and the fate of the Affordable Care Act, soon to be the purview of a President-elect Donald Trump. One of Trump's campaign promises was to repeal and place the ACA, but there have been no details yet as to how that will play out. However, even without the election, Murray said mergers in the sector have reduced the need for additional space.