Hazelden Betty Ford looks to expand in California

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is planning a $30 million project to build a new day-treatment pavilion and four replacement residential units at its campus near Palm Springs, Calif.

With funding for the project coming from earnings, donor gifts and internal funds, construction is expected to stretch over two or three years.

The project is the latest in a series of expansions for Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, a prominent addiction-treatment provider that's based in Minnesota with operations in eight other states. In 2018, the nonprofit group announced plans for a clinic near Seattle followed by a project launched last year to replace residential units at its headquarters in Center City.

"The new pavilion will make 44 additional beds available to patients who are at a level of care below residential (i.e. day treatment) but who want the additional support of structured sober housing," Chris Yadron, administrator of the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., said in a statement to the Star Tribune. "We do not have a comparable facility today so this would represent an expansion of services if the project is approved."

Founded in Minnesota in 1949, Hazelden Foundation merged six years ago with the California-based Betty Ford Center in a deal that linked two national brands in addiction treatment. The new project in California fits with a broader shift at Hazelden Betty Ford where care is provided with shorter stays in residential treatment, followed by more outpatient services.

Day treatment generally includes five hours of care, five days a week, Yadron said.

The construction project will remove four residential buildings that were built between 1980 and 1983, with 20 beds per building. The new buildings will increase residential capacity from 80 to 92 beds.

"We will be engaged in a series of public meetings that will last through the summer," Yadron said. "If all goes well, permitting would take place in the fall of 2020 and we would break ground in late winter or early spring of 2021 — all of that pending approval by the local city government."

At the end of 2019, Hazelden Betty Ford had the equivalent of about 1,300 employees. Last year, the nonprofit group posted a loss of $123,000 on $198.4 million of revenue.

Christopher Snowbeck • 612-673-4744 Twitter: @chrissnowbeck