Metro Back On Track

GRAND RAPIDS — Work is set to resume tomorrow, April 26, on the new $150 million hospital being built by Metropolitan Health Corp.

Metro announced late last week that the financing needed to build the 208-room hospital, the focal point of the new MetroHealthVillage, was completed through the sale of its fixed and variable-rate bonds. Those sales, according to hospital officials, gave Metro $165 million to finance the project.

Turner Construction and the Christman Co. are managing the project. Steel Supply and Engineering will complete the structural work. Ritsema Associates will do the framing for the exterior walls and the fireproofing in June. Both are local firms.

Construction came to a halt last fall while Metro decided how to finance the project. Standard & Poor’s rated the fixed-rate bonds BBB, while the variable-rate bonds carried an S&P rating of A+. The fixed-rate bonds sold faster than initially expected and gave Metro $135 million.

“The market’s response exceeded our expectations and will go down as one of the most important events in the history of this institution,” said Mike Faas, Metro president and CEO.

The eight-story, 500,000-square-foot hospital will occupy about 60 acres of the 170-acre MetroHealthVillage located near

and

in Wyoming. Metro officials expected construction will be finished in mid-2007.