FARGO, N.D. (KFGO) – Prairie St. Johns plans to build a new Behavioral Health hospital in Fargo.
The $47 million state-of-the-art, 128-bed facility will be built on a portion of the footprint of the hospital, just to the east. That will require the demolition of the vacant RiversEdge facility which was once a chapel and living quarters for nuns when the building was St. Johns Hospital.
Prairie CEO Jeff Herman says parts of the current hospital are nearly 100 years old and the infrastructure is starting to fail.
He says the cost of replacing the building’s heating, ventilation, air conditioning system is prohibitive and was the impetus for building a new facility.
He says preliminary design plans for a four-story building will be submitted for state review in August. That process will take three to six months with construction beginning next spring.
Once the new facility is completed, in mid-2021, the old hospital will be also being demolished and will become green space and a parking lot.
