RFP for Canadian patient care tower issued

The three teams shortlisted for the C$325 million (€231.8 million; $259.2 million) patient care tower at Penticton Regional Hospital in British Columbia can begin to prepare their respective proposals, following the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) by Partnerships BC, the government agency responsible for the planning, delivery and oversight of major infrastructure projects in the Canadian province which is managing the selection process for this project.

In January, Interior Health, a publicly-funded healthcare provider serving part of British Columbia, selected EllisDon Infrastructure; Plenary Health, a wholly-owned operating division of Plenary Group; and Tandem Health Partners, which includes UK developer Balfour Beatty, Gracorp Capital Advisers, and others, to proceed to the next stage of the procurement process for the design, building, financing and maintenance of the new facility.

“Today’s Request for Proposals announcement brings us yet another step closer to starting construction on the new patient care tower,” said Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Dan Ashton, in a statement.

The RFP is for phase one of the project, which includes an ambulatory care centre, surgical services centre, 84 in-patient beds and other facilities that will cover a total of 287,500 square feet.

The winning consortium will partially finance the patient care tower, which will also receive funding from the provincial government, the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District and the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation. The preferred bidder will maintain the facility for 30 years post-construction.

The procurement process involves a timeline of staggered submissions with the final one, the financial submission, due December 10, 2015. Partnerships BC has also included a number of collaborative meetings and an interim financial review before final submissions are made.

“The purpose of the Collaborative Meetings is to provide a process that will assist the Proponents to develop optimal solutions for the Project while minimizing the risk that a Proponent’s solution is unresponsive to the Authority’s requirements,” Partnerships BC stated in the RFP.

The government agency expects to announce a preferred bidder in January 2016. Construction is set to begin once commercial and financial closes are achieved, which are expected next March and April, respectively.

The second and final stage of the project will be procured separately and will involve the renovation of vacated areas in the existing hospital to allow for an expanded emergency department and other renovations. It will not be procured as a public-private partnership (PPP; P3) as it is a much smaller project than phase one.

“In British Columbia, projects are typically only considered for a P3 when they have a value that is more than C$100 million,” Interior Health's spokesperson Lisa Braman told Infrastructure Investor.