Mercy Hospital has received a $1 million challenge grant to help complete part of the fundraising to pay for construction and the move to the Fore River Parkway campus from its current location in downtown Portland.
The grant provides one-to-one matching of up to $1 million in contributions to the hospital’s capital campaign through March 31, 2020.
The challenge grant was pledged by the children of “a longtime Mercy friend and supporter” with ties to Maine and Portland, Mercy said in a statement Thursday. The donors asked to remain anonymous, and the hospital declined to provide any more information on the donors or their mother.
“Mom has demonstrated her belief in the importance of Mercy Hospital. We want to acknowledge the special place Mercy has in her heart and help ensure the success of the Mercy capital campaign,” a hospital statement quoted one of the donors as saying.
So far, Mercy, formally called Northern Light Mercy Hospital, has raised about $15 million in its capital campaign, not counting the challenge grant or any matching donations. That campaign has a goal of $20 million. The rest of the $74.7 million cost of building and moving to the new hospital campus will come from the sale of the hospital’s current land and buildings on State Street and borrowing, said Ed Gilman, Mercy’s spokesman.
Mercy is negotiating with a potential buyer of the State Street site. Gilman said the hospital expects to announce the outcome of those negotiations early next year, and the sale likely will include a lease-back provision to allow Mercy to continue to operate downtown until the new campus is completed, probably in 2022.
Mercy has a site plan for the campus before city planners and expects approval early next year. The site has some of Mercy’s hospital operations and a medical office building that opened in 2008. New construction will expand the existing structure and add an ambulatory surgical center, Gilman said.
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