By Eric Berman
11/4/2009
Wishard Hospital will start work immediately on a new three-quarter-billion-dollar facility, following overwhelming approval of a referendum to authorize it.
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An 85-percent yes vote means construction will start in the spring on a new Wishard on what now is the site of the closed LaRue Carter Hospital and the former State Department of Health Building. Demolition on those buildings should begin next week.
The construction won't touch the current Wishard campus. Health and Hospital Corporation CEO Matthew Gutwein says when the new hospital is complete in 2013, patients will move to the new building en masse.
Indiana University will take over the old Wishard, using some buildings for administrative space, and demolishing others to make way for new buildings for its medical school.
Gutwein says he's gratified by the big yes vote for the project -- he says it shows Indy is a "compassionate, humane and caring city."
Wishard says it's hoarded $150 million for a down payment on the project, and can cover the rest without a tax increase. The hospital received another financial boost a day before the election, when Indy's Fairbanks Foundation announced a $6 million grant for the project, contingent on passage of the referendum.
» Wishard Referendum Meets With Success (11-3-09)
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