Planned Banner Health hospital will have up to 192 beds

FORT COLLINS — Banner Health’s planned hospital in southeast Fort Collins will have as many as 192 beds.

The development plans for the parcel near Harmony Road and Lady Moon Drive were submitted this week, a big step forward in the process of building Fort Collins’ newest hospital.

The ultimate project is a 294,000-square-foot, 192-bed hospital and a 30,000-square-foot, 12-physician specialty outpatient Health Center, Banner said in documents filed with the city.

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Another 40,000-square-foot outpatient building will allow for future growth and “support the hospital with additional physician services that will compliment this campus,” the Arizona-based company said in the filings.

Also planned is a heliport, an 800-foot-by-80-foot concrete pad where helicopters will be allowed to land for only a limited time to pick up and drop off patients.

“With incremental growth that is flexible, this facility will be able to keep up with emerging healthcare trends and remain a state-of-the-art facility for years to come,” the paperwork said.

Approximately 130 Banner Health staff members will be employed at the hospital during Phase 1.
At build-out, approximately 714 people will work at the campus.

Banner officials, during a public meeting in November, confirmed that the proposed medical campus would, indeed, include a hospital, in a location just a few blocks away from University of Colorado Health’s Harmony campus.

UC Health’s Poudre Valley Hospital is the only other hospital in Fort Collins, though Banner’s new project would be built just a few blocks from UC Health’s Harmony campus, which includes an urgent care center and where a new cancer center is planned.

Phase One of the campus, on which work has yet to start, includes three main components, Kip Edwards, vice president of design and construction for Banner said at the time.

These components include a diagnostic and treatment facility, which will include an emergency room, a health center, which will house specialists, and the hospital.

In the plans filed with the city, Banner said the hospital will vary in height from its planned one-story clinic on the west, to a three-story bed tower on the east side. The planned campus, Banner said, will be designed with finishes “inspired by the views from the site,” mimicking “the panorama of the Rocky Mountains.”

Banner hopes to break ground on its campus in late 2013 or early 2014, with the facility opening in late 2015 or early 2016, if all goes smoothly. The last phases of the project may not be complete until 2035.

As part of the plan, Banner Health will eventually own 27.88 acres of the site, an area bounded by Harmony Road to the north, Cinquefoil Lane to the east, Le Fever Drive to the south and Lady Moon Drive to the west.

The parcel in question is located across from Kaiser Permanente’s Fort Collins clinic. Banner and Kaiser announced a partnership in late 2011, requiring Kaiser members to visit Banner facilities for covered health care, except in cases of emergency.

The hospital is anticipated to be a Level 3 or Level 4 trauma center, meaning most ambulances responding to emergencies will likely go to Medical Center of the Rockies or North Colorado Medical Center.

Before it can move forward, Banner needs to win approval of its plan from the city as well as the company’s board.