DMC announces contracts over $60M after sealing partnership with Vanguard Health Systems

Detroit Medical Center (DMC) officials today made good on their promise to get right to work on hospital construction projects, announcing contracts totaling over $60 million just four days after DMC's landmark partnership with Vanguard Health Systems was sealed.

"What better way to start the new year than by moving forward with eight DMC construction projects?" said Michael Duggan, DMC president and CEO. "We promised our patients, our employees and the City of Detroit that we would aggressively move in the bulldozers and forklifts once the agreement was final. Today we start fulfilling that promise – and this is just the beginning."

Architectural/Engineering firms are being announced on eight DMC projects and Construction Management firms are being announced on two of those projects. Contracts totaling $50 million dollars went to the DMC Children's Hospital of Michigan Specialty Center and to private room renovation at DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital. Brinker LLC was awarded the Children's construction contract and Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott was awarded the A/E contract. Auch/Mig was awarded the Huron Valley construction contract and Stuckey Vitale was awarded the A/E contract.

"Just over a year ago, the DMC approached us for help. They showed us plans and ideas that gave us confidence in them. We delivered, resulting in the largest investment known to the City of Detroit. Now, we start a new year with new development projects being awarded to local companies, and more importantly, getting people back to work," said Wayne County Executive Robert A. Ficano.

The two major architectural projects being announced today are the Cardiovascular Institute and Multispecialty Building, awarded to Harley Ellis Devereaux which is a five story building with 150,000 square feet and the Sinai-Grace Hospital Emergency Department expansion, awarded to Smith Group, which will double the emergency room and add 46 new ICU beds.

The five-level, 105,550-square-foot Children's specialty center will house a pediatrics clinic, adolescent medicine, outpatient rehabilitation, specialty clinics and 200 physician office suites to meet growing demand for outpatient services. Children's Hospital served nearly a quarter of a million outpatient and emergency department patients in 2009.  The center represents the first expansion of the DMC central campus in almost three decades.

The contracts for architectural work totaling $10 million are:

• Central, unified lobby at Harper University Hospital, awarded to Neumann Smith. The $10.7 million dollar project starts this summer.
• Surgical services renovation at Harper University Hospital, awarded to HKS. The $23 million dollar project starts this summer.
• Unit renovations at Harper University Hospital, awarded to Stuckey Vitale. The $8 million dollar project starts this fall.
• New operating and pre/post operating room at Detroit Receiving Hospital, awarded to Stuckey Vitale. The $8.4 million dollar project starts this fall.
• Cardiovascular Institute and Multispecialty Building, awarded to Harley Ellis Devereaux. The $110 million dollar project starts in fall of 2011.
• Sinai-Grace Hospital Emergency Department expansion, awarded to Smith Group. The $77 million dollar project starts in fall of 2011.

"Sinai-Grace is DMC's largest hospital and the announcement today begins our new phase of expanding our emergency department," said Conrad Mallett, president of DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital. "I'm ecstatic to get started and be involved in the process that will take Sinai-Grace to the next level of providing world-class care in a world-class facility, located right in the community of northwest Detroit."