Mayo Clinic spending $785 million to expand, replace hospitals in Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin

Mayo Clinic announced Tuesday plans for $785 million in hospital construction projects that add momentum to a decade-long growth spurt.

Mayo Clinic Health System, which runs hospitals and clinics in Minnesota and neighboring states, is adding 121 beds at its medical center in Mankato plus a replacement tower for 70 hospital beds in La Crosse, Wis.

The two regional projects have a combined price tag of $353 million. Construction is expected to start this spring with completion scheduled for 2024.

Rochester-based Mayo also announced Tuesday plans for a $432 million expansion at its medical center in Jacksonville, Fla., including five new floors atop an existing hospital tower.

"Together with our digital strategy, we are purposefully upgrading physical spaces and integrating technology in ways that better enable our staff to focus on what matters most," said Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, the Mayo Clinic chief executive, in a statement.

Since 2016, Mayo has invested more than $1 billion in major construction projects, officials said Tuesday. As a result, the clinic says it will have doubled its space in a decade with new facilities for patient care, research, education and technology.

"People come to Mayo Clinic from all over the world for the care only we can provide, and we are committed to expanding and creating inspired spaces that deliver on our promise of hope and healing," Farrugia said.

The Mankato project adds to an emerging hospital construction trend in Minnesota.

Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services announced in December plans to tear down Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul and replace it with a 144-bed facility for psychiatric and substance abuse patients. Children's Minnesota wants to add 22 beds for an inpatient psychiatric unit at its hospital in St. Paul.

The plans at Fairview and Children's require regulatory approval. Mayo says it does not need state regulators to sign off on the Mankato expansion, however, because the facility already has a license for the additional beds.

Full-year 2021 financial results are expected to be released soon by Mayo Clinic. Through the first three quarters of last year, Mayo earned just over $1 billion in operating income, a total that surpasses 2020's full-year earnings of $728 million.

Construction in Mankato will add a three-floor vertical expansion on top of the hospital's emergency department, cancer center and specialty clinic foyer. Hospital floors in the new tower will include intensive care and medical-surgical services as well as a new family birth center.

In La Crosse, the new hospital building will connect to an existing facility for cancer and surgery patients. It will include space for a family birth center, as well, plus medical-surgical patients. A new surgical and procedural floor will connect with current operating rooms.

Mayo said in a statement that the Upper Midwest projects "will incorporate telehealth, digital health and artificial intelligence technologies, along with design elements and efficiencies to support innovative care models and enhance the patient and staff experience."

In Florida, Mayo is adding 121 new inpatient beds including 56 for intensive care patients. The medical center in Jacksonville opened in 2008 with six floors and 214 beds before an expansion project in 2012 added two floors and 90 more beds.

Work there is expected to begin later this year and be completed by the end of 2026.

"After new construction is completed, the hospital will have 1.4 million square feet, 13 floors and 428 beds," the clinic said in a statement. "Staffing at Mayo Clinic in Florida has increased 23% in the past three years, today [numbering] 8,314 staff members."

With major operations across five states including Arizona, Mayo Clinic employs more than 70,000 people overall including 45,440 in Minnesota. Citing inflation concerns, Mayo announced this month a guaranteed minimum wage increase of 4% for workers this year, up from raises of at least 2% announced in January.