Aurora unveils plans for 480,000-square-foot facility west of Costco in Grafton

Ozaukee Press, September 27, 2007

By KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press Staff

Aurora Health Care and Advanced Healthcare on Tuesday announced plans to build an 89-bed, 480,000-square-foot hospital and medical office building on 105 acres northwest of the intersection of Port Washington Road and Highway 60 in the Village of Grafton.

“This site, just off the I-43 interchange, will be convenient for area residents and provide quick access to the hospital for ambulances,” said Bill Ebinger, an internal medicine physician in Grafton and member of the Advanced Healthcare board of directors.

“Our chief goal in choosing a site was to provide easy access for our patients in Grafton and in all of the communities of Ozaukee County. We are confident that our patients will like the location we selected.”

Plans for the hospital were filed with the Village of Grafton Tuesday.

“I think it is a very good start, a very good plan for initial review,” Village President Jim Brunnquell said, noting that the location is appropriate for a hospital and conforms with the village’s zoning map. “This (use) fits in well with our vision for the community.”

Village Administrator Darrell Hofland said the location is a good one for the community and the hospital.

“This hospital is an important component to developing a multi-faceted east side,” he said.

The health-care providers announced on July 31 that Aurora would purchase Advanced Healthcare — a transaction expected to be completed by Jan. 1 — and build a new hospital in Grafton.

The hospital site encompasses two parcels just north of the Grafton Citgo Supersales and across the road from the Grafton Commons shopping center anchored by the Costco Wholesale Store.

The southern-most lot was once eyed for a $26.5 million resort hotel and indoor water park by KNKHoldings of Cambridge, but those plans fell through and the Bank of Sun Prairie foreclosed on the land. Last year, Told Development Co. announced it was planning a retail development on the 27-acre site.

The northern lot, which is about 80 acres, is in the Town of Grafton and would be annexed to the village. The southern third of that lot would be used for the hospital, Hofland said. Aurora could then retain the remainder of the property for future expansion or other uses, or it could be sold for development.

Aurora officials have said they would seek an institutional zoning district for the land, with a planned unit overlay. That overlay will give the village added control and flexibility in reviewing the plans, Hofland said.

Initial conceptual review by the village Plan Commission is expected Oct. 23, with a public hearing on the rezoning expected on Nov. 27. The site plan approval, annexation and rezoning could occur as early as December.

The village is considering whether to require an impact study for the hospital, Hofland said, noting that officials have determined there will be no need for additional infrastructure, such as sewers, water services and streets.

The village is also negotiating a pre-annexation agreement with Aurora, Hofland said.

A payment in lieu of taxes “will be an important part” of the agreement, he said. The agreement will also outline Aurora’s responsibility to pay for future improvements to Arrowhead and Port Washington roads when the northern portion of the hospital property is developed.

Aurora will be asked to reimburse the village the cost of updating a traffic analysis to determine if there is a need for traffic lights at the hospital’s Highway 60 entrance across from Dakota Drive, he said.

The main hospital entrance on Port Washington Road is across from the Costco entrance to Grafton Commons, where there currently are traffic lights, Hofland said.

The medical center would include a four-story, 400,000-square-foot hospital and an 80,000-square-foot medical office building on the southeast end of the facility.

The hospital, which would employ 600 people, would have all private rooms, a 24-hour emergency department on the north end of the facility, a Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic on the southwest side and a variety of other services. A helipad would be on the north end of the site, near the ambulance entrance.

Ebinger declined to comment on the cost of the new hospital.

“I think it’s very early in the process to come up with a cost,” he said, adding there are still many decisions to be made about services and the interior design of the structure.

Aurora spokesman Jeff Squire noted that the facility would be significantly smaller than a hospital being constructed by the health-care provider in the Town of Summit. That facility, which is expected to open in 2010, will be 792,000 square feet.

Aurora’s Green Bay hospital — which Ebinger said is serving as a model for the Grafton facility — was 619,000 square feet when it opened in 2001, and its Oshkosh hospital, which opened in 2003, was 475,000 square feet, Squire said.

In comparison, Columbia St. Mary’s Ozaukee Hospital, which is on Port Washington Road in Mequon about five miles south of the planned Grafton hospital, opened a 222,000-square-foot facility in 1994 with 82 beds.

In 2002, the Mequon hospital underwent its first expansion, adding 107,000 square feet and 24 beds.

Columbia St. Mary’s latest expansion project, which opens next week, brings the Mequon hospital campus to 573,500 square feet and 159 beds, with enough room to add 64 beds in the future.

Although Columbia St. Mary’s officials contend the Aurora hospital is a duplication of services and will increase health-care costs, Ebinger disagreed.

Statistics show that in 2006, 45.9% of the inpatient and outpatient services provided to Ozaukee County residents were in hospitals outside the county, he said.

“We’re hoping to provide another option for high-quality care for our residents closer to home,” he said, adding Ozaukee is the only county in southeastern Wisconsin served by only one hospital.

“This (Aurora) hospital is expected to serve the needs of the local and regional community for years to come,” he said.

Patients have been receptive to the idea of a new hospital in the area, Ebinger added.

There is no timetable for construction, Ebinger said, noting the timing is dependent on the village approval process. Generally, from groundbreaking to opening, it takes about two years to construct a hospital, he said.

A drive would loop around the hospital and provide access to 1,100 parking spaces. The parking lots will include landscaped islands and be partially screened by landscaped berms, Aurora officials said.