Northwest Medical Center Embraces $50M Expansion of Surgical Space

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

Northwest Medical Center (NMC) announced that it plans to invest almost $50 million in a new surgical wing, which will accommodate a growing demand for surgical services. The expansion is set to break ground this winter, and hospital officials expect that the project will take up to 20 months to complete.

According to Arizona Daily Star, the hospital currently has 12 operating rooms, to which the project will add four more rooms. All of the new rooms will be equipped to do minimally invasive procedures and they will be bigger than existing operating rooms by an average of 150 square feet. Along with OR expansion, NMC will renovate one of its Cardiac Catheterization (Cath) Labs.

The new surgical wing will extend from the current building to the existing surgery parking area. The expansion will also allow for future vertical growth of the hospital as the need arises.

In other news, Phoenix-based Linthicum Corp. is currently renovating a Four Points by Sheraton in Tucson, which will be converted into an Aloft-brand hotel, according to the Phoenix Business Journal. Renovation work is expected to take up to nine months, as the new Aloft Tucson University is set to open on Feb. 1, 2013.

Renovation plans call for an exterior facelift of new glass and stucco and then an overhaul of the inside with urban contemporary designs, a new restaurant and lounge, second-level pool and an underground parking garage. The existing conference center on the south side of the property will be demolished, and the renovated hotel will have first-floor meeting rooms in its place, according to Linthicum representatives as quoted in the Phoenix Business Journal. The new hotel will have about 95,000 square feet of space and 154 rooms.

Photo rendering of the new Aloft Tucson University, courtesy of www.starwoodhotels.com