aerial view of Avera McKennan campus.

Avera McKennan Building Projects

With our two new buildings, Avera is leading the largest expansion of hospital patient care space in Sioux Falls history.

Avera is here to support our patients and our community’s growing needs.

  • Sioux Falls grows an estimated 2.5% every year, and its metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is projected to increase by more than 100,000 in the next 15 years.
  • To accommodate our population’s health care needs, Avera is launching the largest building project in Avera’s history at a total cost of $245 million.
  • It will also be the largest expansion of hospital patient care space in Sioux Falls history at 350,000 square feet.
  • Adding a total of 158 beds, the project will accommodate current and future growth of Sioux Falls and our patients’ increased needs for medical services.

Construction Alerts

Get details on changes to the Avera McKennan Campus and how they affect patients and visitors.

Learn More

Avera McKennan Building Project

Avera will build a six-story, 220,000-square-foot tower addition east of the existing Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center main building. The lobby level will create a visible and welcoming front entrance for Avera McKennan and women’s and children’s space, with shell space for education, conference and administrative needs in the future. Construction is expected to be completed in early 2027.

View time-lapse video of the construction project

northeast view rendering of the mckennan womens and childrens building project.

Women’s and Children’s Services

In the new tower, Avera will create expanded and centralized hospital space for birthing, the nursery and pediatrics to care for the unique hospital needs of these populations.

Women’s Health

Two levels of the addition will be dedicated to women’s services including:

  • Labor and delivery
  • Dedicated triage unit
  • Low-risk birthing suites
  • Postpartum family unit with newborn nursery

Across our system, Avera has invested strongly across multiple levels of women’s health care including:

  • Family practice and family practice with OB
  • OB/GYN
  • Midwifery
  • Maternal fetal medicine
  • Genetic counseling and testing
  • Lactation consultants
  • Internal medicine for women
  • Integrative medicine
  • Urogynecology
  • Avera Breast Center

Pediatrics

Next to our current pediatrics hospital area, two levels of the Avera McKennan addition will expand services dedicated to children:

  • Inpatient rooms: We will grow hospital rooms for kids and ensure the space encourages children to be children, with plenty of play room and child-friendly amenities.
  • Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) expansion
  • Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU): The new space will connect to the current state-of-the-art NICU completed in 2015. This will allow us to grow the NICU size as the city grows, with shell space to meet projected needs in coming decades, while respecting previous investment and philanthropic giving to the NICU.

We have been steadily growing our pediatrics program over the last two decades. Avera has 11 general pediatricians in Sioux Falls and 25 throughout the system, as well as a large group of pediatric subspecialists.

Other Changes and Enhancements

  • One level in the tower will allow for future surgical expansion, adjacent to Avera McKennan’s current inpatient surgery center.
  • Areas vacated in the main hospital will be converted to much-needed medical/surgical space.
  • One third of the Avera McKennan tower is designated as shell space for future growth, taking us several decades into the future.
  • The tower will be built just east of the main hospital, connecting to existing levels of the main hospital. The project will require relocation of services housed in Plaza 3 with eventual removal of that building.

Tomorrow's Promise: The Campaign for Women and Children

Tomorrow’s Promise is the largest fundraising campaign in our region to support comprehensive women’s and children’s health services. Join us as we support the health and well-being of generations to come.

Learn More
Avera McKennan Plaza 3 Construction

Avera McKennan Campus Construction Updates

Construction on the Women's and Children's tower is underway. This project is impacting traffic flow on campus. Please make sure you take extra time to get to your destination, understand the current traffic flow, and pay attention to areas closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic due to construction.

  • 10th Avenue is closed.
  • The main hospital entrance has been moved to one-way traffic only.
  • Click on building location for directions and parking instructions

Beginning the week of December 15, construction will necessitate the closure of a portion of the main entrance drive to the north of Plaza 1. Vehicle traffic will be directed to the main entrance from 23rd street north on S 9th Ave. Parking will not be affected.

View Construction Map

The rapid growth of our Sioux Falls community is exciting, and it also means Avera McKennan must grow with it. We are looking to the future and preparing to care for the people of our growing region.

Ron Place, MD, Regional President and CEO, Avera McKennan

Media Inquiries

See the news release announcing these expansions. If you have a media inquiry about these projects or any other topic, contact our news and media team.