The Madison City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to provide a $1.3 million loan to allow the development of a new University of Wisconsin clinic that will allow doctors who promote and treat digestive health to reach more patients.
The project is one of the largest in recent city history, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of UW Hospitals and Clinics Ronald Sliwinski said, with a value of around $100 million.
The loan will allow Madison developer Krupp General Contractors to develop the former Erdman properties west of campus at University Avenue and Whitney Way.
The $1.3 million loan will be used for phase one of the project, Ald. Mark Clear, District 19, said. He said some hospital jobs will be moving from the hospital’s main location to the new clinics because space is limited in the current facility. The new clinic will allow hospital employees better facilities and increased access to equipment.
Clear said he voted in favor of this project because of its economic and health benefits for the city.
“I think this is a really good project in a great location,” he said. “It will provide great jobs for this neighborhood, and I support keeping jobs in the city.”
Paul Lenhart, Krupp owner and CEO, said the project will take place on 14 acres of land that will have other building projects beyond the clinic. The UW digestive clinic will lease 60,000 square feet of the future development site.
“[The development] will house a clinical program that will pull together all the disciplines of digestive health with state of the art facilities,” Sliwinski said.
The demand for services such as endoscopies and colonoscopies is increasing, Sliwinski said. These services are currently delivered at three different locations around campus.
All three facilities are treating their maximum capacity of patients, Sliwinski added. This new facility will bring them together with additional capacity.
Lenhart hopes construction on the first building will begin before the end of the year. The project will take between five to seven years to finish.
Ald. Lauren Cnare, District 3, said the project will allow UW Hospital to provide its patients with more efficient and comprehensive care.
“The new clinic will truly benefit the patients of UW Hospital,” Cnare said. “The American Cancer Society has really been pushing people to be screened for colon cancer. We need to expand the capacity for people to have that done.”
Sliwinski views this expansion as an opportunity to broaden the UW campus and medical facilities over the long term. The UW Clinics are currently holding land for additional future clinical development as well.
In addition to the UW clinics, Lenhart said, multiple other tenants will occupy the new development. The entire mixed-use project will take up seven lots and about a half-million square feet. Each building will have its own parking.
Due to an editing error, the original headline mistakenly said the new UW clinics would be $100 million. The $100 million the city approved was for the entire on the campus’s west-side where several building projects will be constructed, including UW clinics. The headline has been edited to correctly reflect the city’s project. We regret the error.
