Inova and City of Alexandria Break Ground Today on New Hospital on Site of Former Landmark Mall
ALEXANDRIA, VA –
“This is probably the most important event for this portion of our city since annexation” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson
The future is now. After four and a half years of negotiations and endless meetings, Inova and the city celebrated the official groundbreaking of the Alexandria Hospital campus on a rainy Monday afternoon on the last day of September. The sprawling former Landmark Mall site on Alexandria’s West End is getting a whole new makeover. Goodbye forlorn mall, hello shiny new hospital.
Inova and city officials picked up ceremonial shovels at 2:45 this afternoon, kicking off a massive construction project that will take four years to complete. When finished, the facility will span 1.1 million square feet. The project will transform the demolished mall into a mixed-use, walkable urban village.
Close your eyes and picture that mall. Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Sears. All gone, all been razed to make way for the new structure. All that’s left is the cavernous parking garage. City and state elected officials, community leaders, and Inova executives gathered inside a large tent next to giant construction hoes for the christening.
“This is not just a momentous event for NoVA, this is not just a momentous event for all the partners,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson began. His excitement was palpable. “This is an incredibly momentous event for the city of Alexandria in our history.”
The mayor thought back to almost five years ago, that afternoon of March 2020.
“Everything was shutting down. I got an email to set up a meeting. They said, we’re talking about the redevelopment at Landmark Mall. You have to remember the context of where we were. The world as we knew it was in the process of ending.”
City officials and other stakeholders set up a Zoom meeting, the first of many. While the pandemic raged around them, city council and Inova were plotting how to move Alexandria Hospital from its current location on Seminary Road to the now-defunct Landmark Mall site.
“This is also an incredible economic development initiative,” the mayor stressed.
The 52-acre Inova Alexandria Campus will feature state-of-the-art trauma and cancer centers, and cutting-edge technology. The hospital will employ 2,000 healthcare workers.
“I woke up this morning and thought, who else in this country has ever done groundbreakings on two hospitals on the same day,” exclaimed Dr. J. Stephen Jones, Inova CEO.
The new Alexandria Hospital site was the second stop on Inova’s groundbreaking ceremonies today. The Franconia-Springfield Campus kicked off a construction project today as well. These two facilities will expand healthcare services across Inova’s Eastern Region, including Alexandria, Mount Vernon, and Franconia-Springfield.
“Projects like this don’t just happen with one party. It truly takes a village and a city. This is a complex project with multiple stakeholders that have been working literally for decades,” Jones remarked.
As The Zebra reported two years ago, the hospital will be part of a mixed-use area, amounting to four million square feet. The community space will feature park areas, entertainment offerings, and retail,” according to a 2023 report that showed design images of the new hospital.
“At Alexandria Hospital we take immense pride in our legacy as Virginia’s oldest continuously operating community hospital, serving our community for over 151 years,” Dr. Rina Bansal, president of Alexandria Hospital, boasted. Bansal paid homage to Julia Johns, the founding mother of what would later become the Alexandria Board of Lady Managers. To wit, a street on the hospital site will be named after Johns.
“Since 1962, our current campus has been the cornerstone of healthcare for the Alexandria community. Today we’re excited to mark the new chapter for our hospital,” said Bansal. “Our new campus will be the Eastern Region’s place for complex care, featuring a cutting-edge 192-bed community hospital with all private rooms.”
The ceremony ended with an address by Sage Bolte, chief philanthropy officer and president of the Inova Health Foundation. “We invite you to join us in supporting these critical projects. And if anybody wants to make a significant gift, we’re happy to put your name on the top of the hospital,” Bolte quipped.
The Alexandria City Council unanimously approved the redevelopment of Alexandria Hospital on July 6, 2021.
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