ericmacm
Active Member
For over a decade now, Windsor Regional Hospital has been planning on constructing a brand new hospital to consolidate its operations in its aging Met and Ouellette hospitals. The property that was ultimately selected, a 60-acre parcel of land located at the southeast corner of the intersection of County Road 42 and Concession Road 9, had been incredibly controversial due to its location (outside of Windsor's currently developed area). It was the subject of widespread community backlash in older areas of Windsor, and was implicated in multiple lawsuits, including one by a property owner that believed their land should have been selected instead (for which they attempted to file an injunction to slow the project down), in addition to a local NIMBY group that were not satisfied with the location. The location was selected with the rationale of providing better access to residents living out in Essex County, which is growing significantly faster than Windsor proper. The land was formally able to be acquired in 2020 after one of the lawsuits was resolved, and the process finally moved into a more detailed planning phase in 2021. In March 2023, a preliminary design was presented during a virtual town hall that provided updated square footage, layouts, and future areas for expansion in comparison to what had previously been proposed. The project is estimated to cost $2B and the facility will occupy approximately 2 million square feet (up from originally planned 1.3 million square feet). The number of beds is still currently unclear, but they are all planned to be private beds. The hospital was originally planned to have 80% private beds, but after the pandemic, this was revised to being fully private. The original guidelines had set a criteria of approximately 500 beds, but this estimate has likely been revised upward due to changes in growth projections.
Post-development plans include converting Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette hospital, located in downtown Windsor, into an urgent care centre. The building is planned to receive significant renovations and will have increased space and new facilities, as the current hospital is a patchwork of multiple buildings with some sections being very old. The Met hospital, located in Walkerville area along Tecumseh Road, will most likely close and be demolished. The property is currently undergoing a site prep phase that will last approximately 12-18 months. The project is to go out to tender in 2025, with construction likely starting in 2026.
Here are the most recent plans for what the hospital will look like and how it will be laid out (apologies for the image quality, I had to screenshot them from the town hall video):
Older plans that show what the original concept for the new hospital looked like early in the planning process:
Post-development plans include converting Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette hospital, located in downtown Windsor, into an urgent care centre. The building is planned to receive significant renovations and will have increased space and new facilities, as the current hospital is a patchwork of multiple buildings with some sections being very old. The Met hospital, located in Walkerville area along Tecumseh Road, will most likely close and be demolished. The property is currently undergoing a site prep phase that will last approximately 12-18 months. The project is to go out to tender in 2025, with construction likely starting in 2026.
Here are the most recent plans for what the hospital will look like and how it will be laid out (apologies for the image quality, I had to screenshot them from the town hall video):
Older plans that show what the original concept for the new hospital looked like early in the planning process: