Suburban Hospital Set To Start Expansion In October

Suburban Hospital expansion rendering, via Suburban HospitalAfter years of zoning fights with a surrounding neighborhood group, Bethesda’s Suburban Hospital is finally close to starting construction on its massive expansion project.

As first reported by Bethesda Magazine, Suburban Hospital will have a groundbreaking ceremony for the 235,000-square-foot addition and new parking garage in late October. Suburban Hospital spokesperson Ronna Borenstein-Levy said that ceremony is set for Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Suburban Hospital officials say the existing facility is too small to deal with the number of patients the 70-year-old hospital sees each year.

The hospital bought homes along neighboring Lincoln Street to make way for the new facility. A zoning approval by the county’s Board of Appeals led to an intense legal fight from the Huntington Terrace Citizens Association, worried that the abandonment of Lincoln Street and the new garage will lead to more noise and traffic.

The County Circuit Court upheld the Board of Appeals decision and, on another appeal, the state’s Court of Special Appeals also upheld the decision last year.  In August 2013, Suburban was among a batch of hospitals to have letters of intent for expansion or relocation filed with the Maryland Health Care Commission. In April 2013, the County Planning Board approved Suburban’s preliminary and site plans for the expansion, though not without protest from some neighbors.

“We are very excited to be moving ahead with this project,” Borenstein-Levy said.

The parking garage is set to open in 2017 and the new building is set to open in the summer of 2019.  The hospital estimates the expansion project will cost $230 million.

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