Hospital foundation has raised 75 per cent of its pledge for new St. Paul's
Credit to Author: Pamela Fayerman| Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 01:06:09 +0000
The St. Paul’s Foundation has set its sights on raising $225 million toward the cost of a new hospital to be built three kilometres away, on an unused field in the False Creek flats.
With pledges and donations totalling $168 million to date, the foundation is three quarters of the way to completing what’s been called the largest hospital fundraising campaign in Western Canada. The single largest donation was for $75 million from the Pattison Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Vancouver billionaire Jim Pattison‘s empire.
The health care campus will be called the Jim Pattison Medical Centre.
The price tag for the new 12-storey hospital at 1002 Station Street is an ever changing, ever-escalating target, most recently estimated at almost $2 billion. The site, currently a gravel lot atop a former mud flat at the end of False Creek inlet, will be divided into parcels allowing for phased-in construction of buildings. The hospital, a 69-space child daycare centre, outpatient medical clinics, and offices for administrators and researchers are expected to be completed first, by about 2026.
In the second phase of construction, other parcels will be developed for rental housing offered to health care workers, a hotel with kitchenettes for patients seeking care at the hospital as 40 per cent of St. Paul’s patients come from communities outside the Lower Mainland, more offices and a second daycare centre. The initial business plan approved and funded by the government does not cover other structures, only the hospital, according to Providence Health spokesman Shaf Hussain.
Geotechnical remediation work on the False Creek Flats land that is susceptible to liquefaction has not yet begun. The rezoning hearing, to change the site from industrial to comprehensive development, is October 22 and although construction is not expected to begin for another year, government and hospital leaders maintain the new facility will open in 2026.
While the proportion being raised through philanthropy may appear small, relative to the overall cost, it is ambitious in relation to other health sector fundraising campaigns, according to material gathered by staff of the St. Paul’s Foundation.
For example, the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation capital campaign target for its new hospital was $150 million. And the Lion’s Gate Hospital Foundation target for a new medical/surgical centre was $100 million. The Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation capital campaign target for a multiphase redevelopment is also $100 million while the Richmond Hospital Foundation will try to raise up to $50 million for its new building.
All of those projects pale in size when compared to the new St. Paul’s.
Paul Hollands, the chairman of A&W Food Services of Canada, and chair of the St. Paul’s Foundation fundraising campaign committee said that private donor fundraising will account for about 10 per cent of the total cost of the hospital.
“We came up with this amount of $225 million after looking at other capital campaigns, talking to key leaders and gauging support in the community. It’s a big number but in the coming months, you will hear about some more big and smaller donations. People are seeing how we are trying to do something extraordinary because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said, referring to the blank canvas the vacant, 18.4-acre site offers.
“Eight or nine years ago we were more modest in our ambitions. But the fact that we’ve had this very long gestation period means we’ve been able to crystallize our desire to create something really special.”
The existing 6.7 acre St. Paul’s site has already been listed and is expected to yield at least $800 million. Taxpayers will fund the remaining amount of the new hospital construction.
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