Three groups have made the short list to design, build, partially finance and maintain a new patient care tower at Penticton Regional Hospital.
Interior Health announced Monday that EllisDon Infrastructure, Plenary Health and Tandem Health Partners will now be invited to bid on the $325-million project.
“Each completed stage of the competitive selection process brings us closer to the start of construction,” Penticton MLA Dan Ashton said in a press release.
“The new patient care tower is eagerly anticipated by our community and I’m looking forward to seeing the first shovel in the ground.”
Construction is expected to begin in 2016, and the seven-storey tower, which will feature 84 in-patient beds and ambulatory care services among other things, is expected to open in 2019.
Funding for the project will include $122 million from local taxpayers through the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District and $20 million from the hospital foundation, with the B.C. government covering the balance likely through long-term payments to the successful bidder.
A total of six groups expressed interest in the public-private partnership, according to Interior Health, and the three selected all have experience building health infrastructure.
EllisDon, which began as a local contracting firm operated by a pair of brothers in London, Ont., in 1951, has completed 400 hospital projects worth $12 billion, according to the company website.
Plenary Health, a consortium of companies that includes Plenary Group and PCL Constructors, built the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre in Kelowna. Another Plenary Group-led consortium is building the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
Tandem Health, which includes Graham Design Builders and Honeywell International, was selected in April to lead the North Island Hospital Project. That public-private partnership will be responsible for building new hospitals in Comox and Campbell River.