News and Press

Hospital revamp costs soar
December 5, 2006
By Fred Ortega, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

COVINA - The cost to rebuild Citrus Valley Medical Center's Inter-Community Campus has risen to nearly $200million, and the city has hired a firm to look into financing options for the project.

The Covina City Council approved a deal with the hospital in February 2005 to share in the planning costs for a new facility, with the city contributing $2.2 million for the endeavor. The cost for a new facility was estimated at $150million at the time.

Officials say a new building is needed to meet the more-stringent seismic safety requirements imposed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Inflation and additional construction plans have added to the $50million increase over last year's cost estimate.

"It would be best for the community if we just build a brand new hospital rather than retrofit \," said Irene Bourdon, vice president of marketing and communications for the hospital.

The hospital has until 2030 to meet the new seismic standards, Bourdon added.

The city became involved in the project because the hospital is located in a redevelopment area, Bourdon said. Initial plans included a new parking structure that could be shared by hospital patients and downtown patrons.

Besides the benefits that a new hospital could bring to the city's downtown revitalization plans, keeping the hospital in Covina is of paramount importance to local residents, City Manager Paul Phillips said. The hospital's emergency facilities are crucial in an area that lacks a major trauma facility.

"We have a 24/7 emergency room there that we want to keep," said Phillips. "The hospital has been there since nearly the turn of the \ century and is a big community asset."

But having the city bear the brunt of the cost to rebuild the hospital would not be fair because it would be used by residents from throughout the eastern San Gabriel Valley, said Covina resident Dr. Clifford Maass.

"If it is going to be used by everybody, why do we have to pay for it?" asked Maass, a longtime resident of the city.

Phillips said the market area for the hospital includes 900,000 people, far more than Covina's 50,000 residents.

Maass also asked why the city is considering financing the hospital while in the grips of a more than $2 million structural deficit.

Phillips said the city would not be alone in funding the hospital, and that no hospital bond has been proposed at this point.

"We have to look at this regionally," Phillips said. "We have to brainstorm all the financing possibilities."

Last month, the city hired San Francisco-based law firm Nixon Peabody to examine financing options, including the issuance of bonds and even the creation of a local health care tax assessment that would have to be approved by the voters.

Bourdon said Covina is not the only city the hospital will be talking to about financing.

"We are looking at all of our options, including the redevelopment potential \, fundraising and the hospital taking on additional debt through a bond," she said.

She noted the scope of the reconstruction would far exceed the $24 million expansion at Citrus Valley Health Partners' Foothill Presbyterian Hospital in Glendora. About $14.4 million has been raised for that project through the hospital's foundation, with the rest being funded by Citrus Valley Health Partners.

"There is a huge difference between $24 million and $200million," Bourdon said.

Inter-Community Campus has been at its current location on San Bernardino Road since 1924.