MacKenzie Health CEO calls choice of Vaughan hospital propopent 'huge' milestone

YorkRegion.com
Aug. 29, 2016
By Tim Kelly

Calling it “the biggest milestone so far,” in the multi-year Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital project, Mackenzie Health CEO and president Altaf Stationwala said it was “huge” that a proponent has been chosen to build the 1.2-million-square-foot healthcare facility.

Plenary Health got the nod Monday to finance, design, construct and maintain over 30 years the $1-billion-plus project, which will be built at the corner of Major Mackenzie Drive and Jane Street.

The consortium includes developer Plenary Group, designer Stantec Architecture, builder PCL Constructors and facilities manager Johnson Controls Canada.

Plenary Health was chosen after a year-long request for proposals process was launched last summer to pick a project proponent.

The hospital will include an emergency department, surgical services and operating rooms, diagnostic imaging, ambulatory clinics and intensive care beds, obstetrics, pediatrics, mental health services and the York Region District Stroke Centre, and will have 90-per-cent, single-occupancy acute-care patient rooms for infection prevention and control.

“This is huge,” said Stationwala on Monday.

“Last June we put on a request for proposal and we went through an extensive process. The submissions came in three months ago and we did a deep evaluation,” he said before concluding on Plenary Group.

Stationwala said the final cost of the entire project and a timeline for construction won’t be revealed until October when a commercial closing date takes place.

That’s also when he expects the official groundbreaking to take place.

He said it will be to Plenary Health’s advantage to meet all timeline’s, “because the bulk of the payment to the consortium comes only after they complete the project.”

As to an estimated timeline between groundbreaking and when the first patient walks through the doors, Stationwala said he couldn’t predict when that would be except to estimate it would take “anywhere from three to four years to build… it’s a similar size and scale to Humber and Oakville.”