Craig Hospital’s Finance Campaign to Fund Expansion

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Craig Hospital, a nationally ranked rehabilitation center for spinal cord and brain injuries, completed a capital campaign in January that will help double the size of the facility and help finance expensive patient care. This fundraising effort was the largest campaign in Craig Hospital’s 109-year history, according to Craig Hospital. The non-profit hospital in Englewood has not undergone any major changes since the current facility opened in 1970, according to BusinessDen.

The $73 million capital campaign, which was quietly launched in the fall of 2010 and announced publicly in May 2013, will help finance an expansion project that will expand the facility from 135,000 square feet to 220,000 square feet. The Craig Hospital Foundation was able to fund the expansion through former patients and donors. Mary Feller, executive director of the Craig Hospital Foundation, said that once the hospital let people know that they needed help financing the project it wasn’t difficult to get donations, according to BusinessDen. Through the generous giving, the hospital was able to surpass its previous donation goal of $68 million.

Construction on the new facility began in August 2014 and will remodel the entire hospital, according to BusinessDen. Among the changes to the hospital will be the addition of a fourth floor to the current facility as well as a new annex called the Peak Wellness Center. The wellness center will include bicycles that use an electrical current, which will help paralyzed patients during their rehabilitation.

Another key feature in the remodel is the addition of private rooms. Since the hospital is a rehabilitation center, many of the patients are in the hospital for months at a time and are having to share a room, according to Feller. Congestion in the rooms also became a concern during visitation hours. The shared rooms were hard on both patients and the families, who would prefer privacy for their recovering loved ones.

Craig Hospital, which is among the top 10 rehabilitation hospitals in the U.S., will spend $50 million of the campaign funding on construction and $23 million on financial aid programs for patients. The total cost of construction is $90 million, but the hospital will be funding the last $40 million through debt financing and cash reserves, according to BusinessDen. Colorado Springs, Colo.-based RTA Architects designed the hospital, and the general contractor was G.E. Johnson, also based in Colorado Springs.