Children's plans Eastside expansion

Seattle-based Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center is buying 6.6 acres near downtown Bellevue for an expansion that will more than triple the hospital's presence on the Eastside.

The Bellevue City Council approved the sale of city land Monday night. The purchase, for up to $13 million depending on future zoning, will close in April.

The hospital is planning a 50,000-square-foot building, with outpatient rooms, urgent care and pediatric-specialty offices, near the northeast corner of 116th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 12th Street. It is expected to open in 2010, said Lisa Brandenburg, chief administrative officer at Children's.

"There continues to be a need for additional pediatric specialties on the Eastside," Brandenburg said. "We really felt we wanted to bring our services closer to where our patients live."

The hospital leases 14,000 square feet for a clinic at nearby Overlake Hospital Medical Center, where it handles 8,000 to 9,000 patients a year.

The hospital's main campus in Seattle will still be the only building for inpatient care.

"It makes more sense that we don't try to bring everybody here to this campus [in Seattle], other than the critically ill patients or those who need really unique care," Brandenburg said.

The facility will offer 25 clinical services, the largest being cardiology, orthopedics and adolescent medicine, she said. Children's will also build two operating rooms for outpatient surgery and radiology services, she added.

The building will be within a block of an expanded Overlake and a new Group Health Cooperative medical center, giving a boost to the city's growing medical district.

With such economic benefits, the land sale may be the city's most important move all year, Deputy Mayor John Chelminiak said. "We have literally saved the best for the last."

The hospital has long eyed the Eastside for expansion, and officials say they are also considering building more space to the north and south. The hospital already has offices in Everett, Federal Way and Olympia.

The land is owned by Bellevue and 35 other cities in King County, including Seattle, Redmond, Kirkland and Issaquah, that contract with King County for jail services. The county gave the land to the cities about four years ago after it announced it would stop housing the cities' misdemeanor offenders in 2012.

The land was handed over as compensation for the cities eventually pulling their misdemeanor inmates out of the county jail system. The cities were required to either build a new jail on the land or sell it and use the money to find jail services elsewhere.

Bellevue holds the land in trust on behalf of all 36 cities. The cities will use the money to either build a jail somewhere else or pay for another jail-service provider, city spokesman Tim Waters said.

Reporter Amy Martinez

contributed to this story.