MVHS secures financing for downtown Utica hospital project

UTICA, N.Y. — Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) announced it has secured a loan to help fund its estimated $480 million project to build a new 373-bed, 672,000-square-foot health-care campus in downtown Utica.

New York State in 2017 had already committed to offering a $300 million grant for the effort and MVHS needed to raise the remaining $180 million itself through a combination of its own capital, outside financing, and fundraising efforts.

The loan is financed through London, England–based Barclays, a multinational investment bank and financial-services company. MVHS didn’t disclose the amount of the loan.

Closing on the financing satisfies one of the contingencies that the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) placed on its April 2018 approval of MVHS’s certificate of need (CON) for the hospital. The contingencies for approval from the NYSDOH Public Health and Health Planning Council are “common for a project of this magnitude,” MVHS said.

 “We are extremely pleased to finalize this important part of the project,” Scott Perra, president and CEO of MVHS, said in a release. “Securing this financing not only gives us the financial security to complete this transformational project in downtown Utica, but it satisfies one of the CON contingencies which is vital to moving the project forward.”

MVHS recently signed the phase I grants contract with NYSDOH which allows MVHS to begin utilizing a portion of the $300 million state grant. With the contract, MVHS can begin submitting reimbursement requests for expenses related to the new hospital that have already been incurred.

MVHS has already spent nearly $8 million on the project in areas such as building design and consultant fees, per its news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com