The Health Sciences Centre Foundation (HSC Foundation) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Manitoba Clinic building. 

“This is a historic moment for HSC, and I’m proud our Foundation is driving an innovative approach that allows the rebuilding of the adult bed towers to get started immediately,” said Tina Jones, O.M., Chair, HSC Foundation Board of Directors. “It is an extraordinary example of how the HSC Foundation acts as a catalyst for tremendous improvements at HSC and to our health care system. We are elated the provincial government is moving forward with this historic investment and rebuild project.”

The 10-storey, 136,731-square-foot office tower located at 790 Sherbrook Street was built in 2018 and includes a parking facility with 638 spaces. 

In 2022, the facility entered creditor protection. This unique set of circumstances has now allowed the HSC Foundation to sign an agreement to acquire the building for a fair price, secure the support of critical tenants, and prepare to close the transaction using credit facilities, ensuring that no donor dollars will be spent to acquire the building or be used to support the operation of the building moving forward.

This will also allow a $1.5 billion project to rebuild HSC's adult bed towers to start immediately.

The original plan would have required the construction of new facilities to serve as temporary homes for various patient programs while the rebuild proceeded, a process that would have taken as much as five years. 

The rebuild will begin to replace existing obsolete facilities, parts of which date back to 1897, and others that were built in 1911, 1917, 1950, 1960, and 1968. The investment in the new building, which is anticipated to be a minimum of 10 storeys, will also create approximately 240 new private patient rooms, each built to meet current infection prevention and control guidelines and provide better experiences for patients and their loved ones who support them; enable the use of general hospital acute rooms as private, safe, and comfortable rooms; establish campus space for new, complex procedural and diagnostic imaging services; allow for the expansion of the adult emergency department and associated clinic spaces to support patient treatment and flow; and address clinical capacity needs, including space to expand critical care units in the future if needed.

“The transformation and redevelopment of HSC will touch every corner of the hospital and will impact almost every family in Manitoba. To be able to start this historic project immediately, instead of waiting five years to set up temporary space, is a massive benefit for all Manitobans,” said HSC’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Shawn Young. “The location of the Manitoba Clinic is ideal, and it minimizes disruption to patients and programs. This is an outstanding outcome for our hospital and the families who count on it and is another shining example of how the HSC Foundation has a huge, positive impact on HSC and on life in Manitoba.”

The HSC Foundation acquisition of the Manitoba Clinic building is subject to customary closing conditions as well as final approval by the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench.