Sutter Project Shapes Up | The Boldt Company

The $724 million expansion of Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, is moving forward at an indomitable clip – despite some early setbacks and a price tag that has ballooned by 60 percent since work began on the massive midtown project five years ago.

"This is like pushing a boulder up a hill; there's so much hard work," said Larry Maas, assistant administrator of the multi-pronged venture, which includes new services and renovations at Sutter General Hospital in midtown Sacramento, construction of the Anderson Lucchetti Women's and Children's Center across the street and several other substantial medical and community improvements.

A 290-foot crane and its slightly shorter twin have dominated the landscape along Capital City Freeway for a year. Now the 10-story building's hulking frame is taking shape. The final steel beam was set last month. Workers are pouring up to 350 yards of concrete a night for flooring. And the building enclosure – the metal studs to the curtain wall – comes next, according to Michael Mielcarek, project manager for general contractor The Boldt Co.

The recession has stopped or slowed many private building projects, but medical construction in the Sacramento region plugs along. Catholic Healthcare West has several projects in the works, including the Mercy Cancer and Mercy Imaging centers, both outpatient facilities slated to open this year at 33rd and C streets; a new medical plaza in Elk Grove; and the Alex G. Spanos Heart & Vascular Center at Mercy General Hospital.

Two miles south, UC Davis Medical Center opened its state-of-the-art Surgery and Emergency Services Pavilion last fall, a $424 million endeavor. A number of smaller projects are in various stages of completion on the Stockton Boulevard campus. They include a 46,000-square-foot addition to the cancer center, which will centralize the treatment of pediatric oncology patients, and the new California Telehealth Resource Center.

By bringing labor costs down, the recession has been a boon for construction projects at the Med Center. A 1,200-car parking garage across from Shriners Hospitals for Children Northern California will cost about $25 million to complete, $15 million less than originally budgeted, said Michael Boyd, executive director of facilities for the UC Davis Health System.

"If you can scrape together the money to implement projects, it's literally one of the best times in the past two decades to be taking a project out to market," Boyd said.

At Sutter, an 1,100-space parking garage was the first part of the medical expansion to be completed. The Sutter Capital Pavilion at the corner of 28th and L streets opened two years later, in 2010, housing doctors' offices, imaging services, outpatient surgery space and the power plant for the entire medical complex.

The Anderson Lucchetti Women's and Children's Center is slated to open in 2013. The 242-bed facility will replace the aging Sutter Memorial Hospital in east Sacramento. It will provide an array of neonatal and pediatric care, as well as high-risk and conventional maternity services, a helipad for emergency transport and an additional 48 intensive care beds – quintupling Sutter General's ICU capacity. At 179 feet 3 inches, the unfinished building is touted as the tallest in midtown.

Meanwhile, renovations are in full swing inside Sutter General Hospital, though most are hidden from public view. "People see the big steel structure; it gets more of the attention," said Maas, who has worked on the expansion since its conception in 1998. "The truth is, the house isn't just getting a new paint job. We're gutting the house."

The basement – once a physicians parking lot – now contains a laboratory, pharmacy and medical records, temporarily relocated from elsewhere in the hospital to accommodate construction. The third floor will house cardiovascular services, which are moving from Sutter Memorial in two years. Patient rooms will be updated, and the emergency department will be expanded to include a pediatric ER replete with child-friendly décor.

Sutter General will also eventually get a new name, the Ose Adams Medical Pavilion. It will connect to the Anderson Lucchetti building in a big way: via a three-story bridge above L Street that will also house clinical space.

This crossing will be "the umbilical cord that connects the two hospitals," Maas said.

A more conventional bridge will connect to the Buhler Building (also to be renamed a pavilion), which houses the Sutter Cancer Center.

The Sutter Health project has not been without a glitch or two. The Service Employees International Union filed a lawsuit challenging the city's approval of the project, delaying construction by several months and driving up costs due to inflation.

Work came to a halt again two summers ago when Sutter Health replaced its general contractor, in part because of cost increases. Certain materials, such as steel, were also purchased at the peak of the market.

At the same time, the expansion has provided local jobs, Maas added, and some significant enhancements to the neighborhood. These include a partnership with the B Street Theatre, which has performed for Sutter's pediatric patients in the past.

B Street is opening a 365-seat children's theater at 27th Street and Capitol Avenue on land donated by Sutter Medical Center.

"That will create some real synergy," Maas said.