THEN AND NOW: The road to Essentia’s new St. Mary’s hospital

DULUTH, MN. (Northern News Now) - It’s been a long road for the new Essentia hospital.

Essentia broke ground on the roughly $900 million Vision Northland project, which is a replacement hospital bed tower, clinical space, and surgical suites, back in September 2019.

By fall of 2020, crews had finished the foundation.

A little over two years after breaking ground, the structure was complete.

They raised the final beam during a topping-out ceremony in November 2021.

The first tours of the new building started in February when the hospital was finished.

Since then, teams have been making last-minute preps as they get ready to start caring for patients there.

It took four years or 2.8 million union labor hours to build.

About $760 million went to construction and equipment costs, while $141 million was for infrastructure and financing costs.

Essentia was able to pay for the project with help from bond proceeds, donations, and other hospital funds.

Now, the new St. Mary’s Medical Center stands 292 feet tall from the main entrance on 2nd Street and 340 feet tall from Superior Street.

It’s 942,000 square feet with 342 patient rooms and 16 operating tables inside.

There are also 500 miles of cable inside to help account for all the technology.

Click here to download the Northern News Now app or our Northern News Now First Alert weather app.

Copyright 2023 Northern News Now. All rights reserved.