CREVE COEUR • The City Council has approved plans by BJC HealthCare to replace Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital with a bigger, modern structure as part of an overhaul of its Creve Coeur campus.
The plan, approved unanimously by council members, also includes the addition of four new medical office buildings and a new parking garage.
The approval means city officials agree with the long-term vision for the 54-acre site at the southeastern corner of Olive Boulevard and Mason Road. BJC will still have to come back and seek more approvals when it starts constructing the actual buildings.
The measure was passed Monday evening with the condition that a traffic study be conducted and submitted to the city with each phase of the project.
BJC officials did not say Monday night when the first phase would commence. However, they said they expect to know more in the next couple of weeks.
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The first phase would include the replacement hospital and one attached medical office building, according to George Stock, of Stock and Associates, a representative for the project.
Stock did not object to the traffic study.
Previous conditions that were agreed upon call for BJC to provide additional landscaping as needed to buffer residential properties and Olive Boulevard from the project.
The proposal for the replacement hospital calls for a 260,000-square-foot, six-story building — more than twice as big as the current Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.
BJC officials have said the current hospital, which was built in 1969, is outdated and needs modern accommodations like single-patient rooms. BJC acquired the hospital in 1989.
The new hospital will have up to 100 beds — 23 more than the current facility.
Some have raised questions about the need for more beds given the occupancy rate of 27 percent in 2014, according to data from the St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition. That’s well below the national average of 61 percent.
Stock said the hospital will open with 68 beds but will have the ability to add an additional 32 if needed.
The hospital will use “shelled” or unfinished space that will be built out in the future if needed, Stock said Monday night.
“It’s really no different than the project that MoBap [Missouri Baptist Medical Center] constructed three years ago,” Stock said referencing the shelled space.
