Mary Greeley Medical Center Begins $129 Million Expansion

held a ground breaking ceremony Tuesday afternoon marking the start of of its $129 million expansion.

About 200 members of the community attended the ceremonial start of Extraordinary Visions which took place in the lower level of the hospital's parking structure.

The hospital's board of trustees calls the plan Extraordinary Visions because it is the largest construction project in the hospital's 95-year history and should serve the hospital well into the future.

Construction crews will build a six-story patient tower, larger inpatient rooms, an enclosed sidewalk that will connect the main building and the parking ramp and relocate and expand the emergency department in three phases.

The Ames City Council to allow the hospital board of trustees to use $65 million in revenue bonds for the project, the same day that a $65 million rebuilding and renovation project for six elementary schools. The rest of the funding for the project will come from the hospital's foundation and its operating budget. About $6 million of the project will come from private donations.

See a rendering of the hospital project at KCCI. A video of the project can be seen here.