Houses moving for new hospital

Published 11:28 am Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Kevin Hanson

The Courier-Herald

Plans for a new Enumclaw Regional Hospital continue to progress - though not as quickly as some had hoped - and dramatic changes could occur as early as next month along Battersby Avenue.

Five homes on the north side of the street, directly across from the current hospital, need to go, to make room for the new construction. Four of those have been sold and will soon be moved, while a fifth, due largely to a rather awkward design, will be demolished. The five homes could disappear in April or May, according to Dennis Popp, executive director at the hospital.

A new development has been the decision to retain the entire current hospital, which will be transformed for a variety of uses, Popp said. Previously, there was talk of razing the entire building and using the land for parking, or perhaps keeping a portion of the structure for administrative purposes.

New plans, Popp said, call for keeping the building intact and even using a portion for patient care.

The budget has climbed since talk of the new hospital first began and a total price tag is now in the neighborhood of $25 million, Popp said. That includes about $20 for actual construction, millions more for new equipment and still more for taxes, permits and fees.

To finance the project, approximately $20 will have to be borrowed, and Popp said the field of potential lenders has been narrowed to a few. The remainder will come from hospital reserve funds and other sources.

Kevin Hanson can be reached at khanson@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.