USD/BTC =$104,926 Block 898,982 TL:DR

When it comes to building the new Richard M. Schulze Surgical and Critical Care Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, the project team at Mortenson Construction has had “May 12, 2025” circled on its virtual calendar for nearly two years.

That was the expected completion date of the final concrete pour for the new 10-story, 500,000-square-foot care center. The milestone happened right on schedule — and was cause for a festive mood at the project site.

Tuesday morning, Allina Health and Mortenson Construction celebrated a “topping off” ceremony for the ambitious $1 billion project, which means the building has reached its full height and the structural part of the tower is now complete.

“We’ve been hitting milestones the whole way through, and one of the biggest ones was the final deck pour, and we hit it on the exact day we were planning on doing it,” said Mike Labukas, market executive for Mortenson.

Allina Health broke ground on the project in October 2023. Labukas said the project is on schedule for completion in June 2026. After a move-in process, the facility will be open for business in late August 2026.

The care center project is part of a larger $1.5 billion expansion, which also includes a parking garage and a new central utility plant, according to Allina.

Lubukas said the project is tracking under budget.

“We’ve been returning contingency back to Allina for them to reinvest back into the project. The budget is going even better than the schedule is,” he said.

From a construction standpoint, challenges abound for the new 192-bed building. The structure, which will feature 30 new operating rooms, is under construction on a “tight, urban site in the center of an operating campus,” according to HGA, the project’s designer.

“The biggest challenge so far has been the site logistics of working on an active hospital campus and making sure that patients and staff are always getting to where they need to get to — all while building a big new hospital right in the middle of campus,” Labukas said.

From an architectural perspective, the design “complements a traditional urban campus with a fresh new look, melding effortlessly into the existing architecture,” according to HGA, the project’s designer.

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Very cool project. Almost 10,000 BTC for a new hospital