The Fancsy Family Hospital is in phase one of three in the multi-billion-dollar project and a company willing to build the ‘heart and soul’ of it is wanted. Construction is expected to break ground on the site at County Road 42 and the Ninth Concession in ‘mid-2026’ for the first phase. The project has been broken down as follows: “If we let it be one single phase, there was a real risk that no one would show up to the table to build a project of that magnitude,” Vice-President of Redevelopment, Brandon Bailey said Wednesday. “Splitting it up into smaller components ensures that we have multiple suitors and competitive pricing on each individual part.” Bailey believes there are “two, maybe three” companies that are up for the task of bidding on and completing Phase Two. “It’s really the heart and soul of this project. It will be the most expensive proportionately,” Bailey said, although stopping short of revealing exactly how much each phase is worth. “It’s something that we cannot disclose publicly,” he said. In August, when the hospital was named, officials said it will likely cost more than the original $2 billion estimate. EllisDon has been selected for Phase One. Hospital officials are now accepting pre-qualifying applications from builders interested in Phase Two. The successful companies will then be invited to submit a formal proposal to bid on the project. The winner for Phase Two isn’t expected to be announced until later this year, with potential groundbreaking no sooner than late 2027, according to Bailey. When patients will be cared for inside the Fancsy Family Hospital is still yet to be determined. “We’re not able to articulate or say exactly when that the schedule will be complete,” Bailey told the media. Local leaders first launched this idea of a new hospital for Windsor-Essex back in 2012. “I’m happy that we’re able to finally say yes, we are moving forward, we’re on (Infrastructure Ontario’s) Project List, and we’re going to get this hospital built for our community,” President and CEO Karen Riddell told the media. Riddell is expected to retire in April, having worked at Windsor Regional Hospital since 1999. “This is a great way to be going out now that we finally got our approval to move to the next stage. It’s been a long time coming,” she said. Riddell said patients will be pleased to learn every inpatient room at the new hospital will be fully private. “That will be a huge boon not only for infection control but also to the healing spirit of the new hospital,” Riddell said. In August, the family of the late John Thomas Fancsy announced a “transformational gift” of $40 million for the naming rights on the hospital. Hospital officials said this donation is the largest ever received by the Windsor Regional Hospital Foundation and the largest publicly known gift in the Windsor-Essex Region.
