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JOPLIN, MO. — McCarthy Building Cos. has topped out the new 875,000-square-foot Mercy Hospital Joplin for Mercy, a Chesterfield, Mo.-based Catholic health care system. The company broke ground on the seven-story, 260-room hospital in January 2012 with a construction budget of $335 million.
The facility replaces the former St. John’s Mercy Regional Medical Center, which was demolished in an EF-5 tornado on May 22, 2011. Members of Mercy and the Joplin community, along with the design and construction team, signed the final steel beam in honor of the former hospital.
McCarthy and Mercy began working together just days after the tornado struck, establishing a temporary 60-bed field hospital so that Mercy could continue to serve the residents of the community.
“McCarthy has given us what we’ve really needed most. They know how to make things happen,” says John Farnen, executive vice president of planning, design and construction for Mercy. “We went from the initial design to breaking ground in just five months.”
The hospital will include medical, surgical, critical care, women’s, behavioral health and rehab facilities. The lower three floors of the development include hospital space, with a seven-story patient tower and four-story clinic tower located above.
A separate 30,000-square-foot central utility plant is connected to the main structure by an underground tunnel. The building’s exterior is scheduled for a November 2013 completion. The central utility plant will be operational by January 2014, while the main structure is expected to open in March 2015.
Stephen Meuschke of McCarthy is the project manager. The development team included the architectural firms Archimages and HKS. Heideman & Associates served as the MEP engineer.
Mercy serves more than 3 million people annually. The company’s portfolio includes 32 hospitals and 300 outpatient facilities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Founded in 1864, St. Louis-based McCarthy is one of the largest healthcare builders in the country.
— Brittany Biddy