Ground is broken for a new Deaconess Clinic in Downtown Evansville.
Officials turned dirt near the corner of 4th and Walnut streets, near the Stone Family Center for Health Sciences – and just a couple of blocks from the existing clinic.
Deaconess CEO Sean McCoy was reminded a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan a few years ago, where local officials learned how that city grew with a new hotel…
"And then it was just one project after another, after another. And it had a med school similar to us which is one of the reasons we were looking there. So, when I came in today I can tell you Evansville reminds me very much of what happened in Grand Rapids."
Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke praised the clinic project…
"We are transforming not just this area here but the entire downtown and the entire region."
Deaconess Clinic Vice President Dr. Allen White told reporters the new 3-story clinic will actually be smaller…
"We're going from about 185,000 square feet of which we have some wasted space and some inefficiencies into a more compact, much more efficient, much greener, much more energy-efficient building."
The IU School of Medicine will occupy 10,000 square feet of the new building for clinical research.
It will also include feature a Deaconess Clinic Express.
The facility is expected to open in 2020.
