Montana Hospital Project Wins Initial Approval

KALISPELL, Mont. — An expansion plan for Kalispell Regional Medical Center received initial approval from the Kalispell City Council earlier this week.

The City Council unanimously approved the first reading of a planned unit development overlay zoning district on ten acres for Northwest Healthcare.

The $42 million hospital expansion will include a three-floor surgical services tower with the ability to add to more floors.

The expansion project will take place in five phases over the next ten years. Completion of the first phase is expected by early 2012. A second phase emergency room expansion is expected to be complete by September 2014. The third phase will see the completion of a parking garage in 2015 and the fourth phase a second parking garage in 2018.

The City Council and hospital management agreed to three additional conditions that addressed a north-south vehicle access near the hospital during construction, which became necessary due to the closure of a private road west of the hospital during construction.

Phase five will construct recreational vehicle parking and green space on the hospital campus in 2020. No date has been released for the projected construction of the fourth and fifth floors of the surgical services tower.