Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) is backing a selection committee’s recommendation that a Largo site be chosen for a new, $654 million state-of-the-art regional hospital.
The board of directors for Dimensions Healthcare System, the nonprofit organization operating four hospitals in Prince George’s County, will discuss the recommendation during its meeting today.
“The selection committee will recommend the Largo site officially at the Dimensions board meeting,” Baker spokesman Scott Peterson said Wednesday. “This is the selection committee recommendation, not the county executive’s. Mr. Baker concurs with this recommendation.”
The proposed 280-bed hospital would replace the aging Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly.
Dimensions Healthcare also operates Laurel Regional Hospital, the Bowie Health Campus and Glenridge Medical Center in Lanham.
On Tuesday, a selection committee comprised of members from county government, Dimensions Healthcare, the University of Maryland Medical System and the Maryland Department of Health and Human Hygiene recommended the Largo site, located next to the Largo Metro station. The other contender for the hospital was the site of the former Landover Mall.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth, a Washington, D.C.-based organization promoting walkable, transit-oriented community development in the Metropolitan area, issued a statement Wednesday morning applauding the recommendation.
“Prince George’s County took a big step forward toward a more sustainable economic and environmental future with the decision to place the new regional medical center at the Largo Town Center Metro station,” Cheryl Cort, Coalition for Smarter Growth policy director, said in the statement.
The Largo site is comprised of 70 acres of land owned by Oak Brook, Ill.-based Retail Properties of America, and several adjoining properties under private ownership. It is adjacent to the Boulevard at Capital Centre shopping center and the Largo Metro station.
The site is within close access to Interstate 495.
“A Metro-accessible regional medical center helps Prince George’s catalyze transit-oriented economic development and capture a larger share of the region’s growth,” Cort said in the statement. “Locating this major new medical facility at a Metro station brings both healthcare and thousands of jobs to a significantly more accessible location for county residents.”
Dimensions Healthcare announced in July that the search for the new hospital had been narrowed to two sites, the Largo site and the site of the old Landover Mall, which was demolished in 2007.
The Landover site provides bus service to the New Carrollton Metro, nearly three miles away. The Largo Metro station is somewhat closer to the Landover site, at 2.5 miles walking distance, but not directly accessible by bus.
The hospital construction is being funded through state and county government, as well as Dimensions and the University of Maryland Medical System.